Basant celebrated

Rawalpindi: The skies over the cantonment board localities in Rawalpindi were dotted with kites of all shapes and sizes as the citizens violated the ban on kite flying and celebrated the festival on Thursday night and Friday.

Particularly, the residents of Lal Kurti, Dehri Hasanabad, Tench Bhatta, Adra, Defense Road, Tulsa, Bakramandi, New Lalazar, Kiani Road, Dhok Syedan, Misriyal and Adiala Road celebrated the ‘Basant’.

The kite flyers were also using aerial firing freely and listening songs on high volume on the occasion.

On the other hand, police teams arrested 113 violators and recovered over 7,000 kites including dozens of rolls of chemical stings here on Friday.

No doubt, police vans were roaming all around but failed to implement the orders of Punjab government.

The City Police Officer (CPO) spokesman told ‘The News’ that they were trying to stop kite flying in all areas and were trying to educate people to avoid kite flying as it was dangerous game.

Kite flying is banned in Punjab and federal capital, owing to numerous fatal accidents caused by use of metallic and glass-coated strings getting entangled in necks of people.

Rawalpindi Kite Flying Association (RKFA) has announced to celebrate ‘Basant’ on February 25 in city areas.