Police get drones to hunt kite flyers, sellers
As the Rawalpindi Kite Flying Association announced to celebrate Basant in the Rawalpindi city on February 17 and February 18, police have been provided with drones to hunt kite flyers and sellers.
Police have formed teams to arrest the violators of the ban on kite flying and summoned additional personnel to enforce the ban.
Police forces also conducted a flag march in the city last day as a show of warning to kite flyers and sellers.
Kite flying association leader Haji Iqbal has announced that the Basant night will be held on Thursday and a Basant mela on Friday.
Iqbal added that no one can stop them from celebrating Basant. Preparations for Basant have been completed and people will witness a rampant of kites in the sky, he said.
“As many as 500,000 kites and 300,000 strings have been ordered for the Basant night and mela,” Haji Iqbal added.
Police have so far seized only 60,000 kites.
Haji Iqbal further said that at present, kite-flyers in the city have a stock of 400,000 kites of 0.7 million strings in godowns. Kites are being delivered to homes on demand. The price of kites has also gone up ahead of Basant.
Kite-flyer Faheem Naz said that kite-flying is a hobby and a ban on it is unjust and should be lifted.
Another kite-flyer Sohail Ahmed said that people are trapped in a whirlpool of problems in the country, if the nation celebrates a single day for their amusement, then there should be no issue.
Basant should not be banned instead the use of metal string should be banned, said Ahmed Bhatti Khan, a kite seller.
He said that kite flying and selling is a business worth Rs5 billion annually. This business belonged to poor families. A poor man used to start this business with a minimum investment of Rs5,000 but this business has also been taken away from them by the government.
Wasiq Ali said that ‘metal cords and aerial firing take lives of people and passers-by every year. An occupation that causes death should be banned.
The city police officer (CPO) has issued strict orders to all police stations to crack down on kite flyers.
Meanwhile, the police of urban police stations arrested 94 kite-flying and kite sellers in different areas yesterday and recovered 31,000 kite strings from their possession.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 17th, 2022.