A nine-year-old boy named Naimatullah, who was injured in aerial firing during the Basant celebrations on Friday, succumbed to his injuries on Saturday.
Police said that a stray bullet had hit the boy’s head and he was being treated at a hospital. In a two-day festival, two children lost their lives while around 70 suffered injuries after falling from their rooftops or in aerial firing.
On Friday, a seven-year-old boy was killed after he fell from the rooftop while flying a kite in the Dhok Kala Khan area while as many as 70 people were injured from stray bullets and in kite flying-related incidents during the last two days.
Read: Police get drones to hunt kite flyers, sellers
Police in their crackdown against the violators registered 237 cases against 325 people for violating a ban on Basant in the garrison city.
On Thursday and Friday, despite the Punjab government’s ban on kite flying across the province, 'Basant' was celebrated in the city areas. More than 1,000 cases of kite-flying and jubilant firing were registered in Rawalpindi region and 1,120 people were arrested. The police recovered 107,185 kites and 1,979 string rolls from the arrested persons.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 20th, 2022.
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