LAHORE: The Lahore Race Course police have arrested two men accused of manufacturing and selling kites in defiance of the ban in force across Punjab.
According to police, the suspects were arrested from the Harbanspura area, where they were continuing the kite trade despite the prohibition.
During the operation, 600 prepared kites worth millions of rupees and seven reels of string were recovered from the suspects’ possession.
Police have registered a case against the arrested men, identified as Ateeq and Ali, and both have been handed over to the Investigation Wing for further inquiry.
The prohibition is not a matter of cultural disapproval; it is a response to a documented pattern of fatal injury.
Kite flying was banned in Punjab following a series of deaths caused principally by the string rather than the kite. Metallic and chemically coated twine — commonly known as door, treated with ground glass, chemical abrasives or containing metal filament — was adopted by competitive flyers because it severs an opponent’s line. The same properties sever human tissue.
The characteristic fatality involves a motorcyclist riding at speed into a stray line strung across a road, sustaining deep lacerations to the throat. Victims have disproportionately been motorcyclists and children. Metallic string has also caused electrocution and widespread damage to distribution networks when it contacts overhead power lines, and has been responsible for repeated tripping of feeders across Lahore.
The Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying Ordinance was promulgated in 2001 and subsequently strengthened, with the ban given statutory force through the Punjab Prohibition of Kite Flying (Amendment) Act. The law penalises not only flying but the manufacture, sale, storage and transport of kites and string, with the harshest penalties reserved for those dealing in metallic and chemically treated twine.
Seizures typically cluster in two windows: the run-up to spring, when Basant was traditionally celebrated, and periods when the possible restoration of a regulated festival is under public discussion. Both generate speculative stockpiling by manufacturers.
The scale of this recovery — 600 finished kites and seven reels — points to commercial preparation rather than personal use, which is the distinction the law itself draws in setting penalties.
The question of whether Basant should be revived under regulated conditions returns to Punjab’s political conversation at intervals. Its advocates, including sections of the hospitality and tourism sector, argue that the festival was a significant cultural and economic event for Lahore and that a regulated version — licensed venues, cotton string only, designated open grounds — could be managed safely.
Opponents, including many families of victims, argue that regulation has repeatedly failed in practice: once flying resumes at scale, banned string re-enters circulation, and enforcement across a city of Lahore’s density becomes impossible.
The ban currently remains in force. Citizens are reminded that possession and sale, not merely flying, constitute offences.
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