Kites of death

Lahore, Pakistan

Pakistani police arrested 1,400 people last week for the potentially deadly activity of flying kites. Kite fliers at the annual Basant festival traditionally try to ground each other’s kites by slashing the strings with their own strings, and in recent years duelers have coated them with metal or glass, to make them sharper. Over the last decade, razor-sharp kite strings have caused dozens of deaths, so this year Punjab Province barred kites altogether. The mayor of Lahore, Punjab’s capital, called the ban a great success. “Last year, 19 people died on Basant day,” said Mayor Mian Amir Mahmood. “No one has died this year.” Seven people were killed in the run-up to the festival, though, before the ban was put into effect.

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