LAHORE: The Mujahid Squad at the Shera Kot checkpoint has foiled an attempt to move a large consignment of illegal kites and chemical string into Lahore, arresting two suspects.
According to a police spokesperson, the suspects were transporting a heavy consignment of kites and dangerous string from Hyderabad to Lahore using public transport. During checking at the Shera Kot checkpoint, more than 200 kites and 19 reels of killer string were recovered from their possession.
Police said the suspects had concealed the kites and string reels inside LCD cartons with considerable skill, but the Mujahid Squad recovered the illegal material through timely action.
The arrested suspects were identified as Zafar Iqbal and Umar Farooq. Both have been handed over to Shera Kot police station for further legal proceedings.
According to police officials, action against dangerous chemical string and illegal kites will continue.
Meanwhile, SP Mobiles Bilal Ahmad commended checkpoint in-charge Nazeer and the personnel of the Mujahid Squad on the successful action.
To readers outside the province, an enforcement operation against kites can appear disproportionate. The reason it is not lies in the material itself. So-called chemical or metallic string — locally described as “killer string” — is manufactured by coating thread with abrasive compounds, powdered glass or metallic filaments to give it cutting power in aerial competition. Once loose, that same property makes it lethal at street level.
Punjab has recorded a long series of fatalities in which motorcyclists were killed by string stretched across roads or falling loose after a cut, with injuries concentrated on the throat and hands. Children have died in similar circumstances. Stray metallic string has also caused electrocution incidents and tripped distribution lines when it contacts overhead power infrastructure, producing localised outages.
Those consequences underpin the Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying Act, 2001, which criminalises the manufacture, sale, storage, transport and use of prohibited kite-flying materials. The law has been strengthened by amendment in the years since, with substantially enhanced terms of imprisonment and fines aimed particularly at manufacturers and suppliers rather than only at end users.
The details of this seizure are instructive precisely because they show a supply chain in operation. Material moving by public transport from Hyderabad, concealed inside cartons for consumer electronics and destined for Lahore, indicates organised distribution rather than casual possession.
Enforcement strategy in Punjab has accordingly shifted toward interdiction at entry points and checkpoints — the model applied here — on the reasoning that intercepting a single consignment removes more material from circulation than dozens of individual apprehensions.
Cases registered under the Act are triable in the ordinary criminal courts. Investigation in consignment cases typically focuses on identifying the point of manufacture and the intended recipients, and further arrests are common where a transport chain is traced.
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