18 people killed during Kite Festival
I am very sad to have learned that 18 people were killed and more than 100 injured during last weekend’s Basant Festival in Pakistan, according to Pakistan Observer.
The Basant Festival, which ran from 24-25 February, is famous for its kite flying, but also notorious for the number of deaths and injuries, it causes. Spectators and contenders have fallen off roofs, been cut by glass-coated kite strings or electrocuted by power lines.
A two-year-old kite flying ban had been especially lifted for this year’s Basant Festival, as the Punjab government was hoping to avoid any tragedies by enforcing strict regulations during the Basant.
Despite the strict regulations, Pakistani newspapers are reporting of a Basant frenzy, with kite flyers ignoring the regulations and using metal wire and other dangerous types of kite string.
According to Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi celebratory “firing in the air had caused most of the deaths”, (source: Daily Times).
As much as I adore kites and the whole idea of kite festivals, I would assume the future of the Basant is now on very shaky grounds indeed. It’s a shame that what on the surface seems such an innocent festival needed to have such terrible and unnecessary consequences.
My thoughts are now with the injured and the families who have been bereaved by such senseless behaviour.
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