LAHORE: A serving police constable posted on security duty at Governor House has been arrested along with three associates for allegedly supplying kite-flying material in Harbanspura, in one of two separate actions that saw hundreds of kites and spools of banned chemical string seized across Lahore.
Police said Constable Talha travelled to Harbanspura with three companions to supply kite-flying material despite the ban in force in the city. A lady sub-inspector intercepted the group and arrested the constable along with his associates.
600 kites and 40 spools (charkhis) were recovered from the suspects, police said. Talha is deployed on security duty at Governor House. A case has been registered at Women Race Course police station and further investigation has begun.
The arrest is significant beyond the seizure figure. Enforcement against kite supply depends on the credibility of the force carrying it out, and the involvement of a serving constable deployed at a high-security provincial installation raises supervisory questions that the departmental inquiry will have to address. Police have not said whether Talha has been suspended pending proceedings. The Lahore Times has sought a departmental response.
In a separate action, Bata Pur police arrested a kite seller and blocked a consignment of kites and string, part of a crackdown running on the directions of DIG Operations Muhammad Faisal Kamran.
Police said the operation was carried out during patrolling near Khera Pul on a confidential tip-off, where kite seller Ali Raza was caught red-handed allegedly making a delivery of kites and string.
According to DIG Operations Muhammad Faisal Kamran, 200 kites and 12 spools of killer chemical string, together worth lakhs of rupees, were recovered from the suspect.
SP Cantt Atif Amir said the suspect admitted during interrogation to supplying kites and string to different areas using online location sharing — a method that lets sellers avoid fixed shopfronts entirely and deliver to coordinates shared over messaging apps.
Intelligence-based operations are continuing to arrest the suspect’s associates, SP Cantt said. A case has been registered and the suspect handed to the investigation wing.
DIG Operations Kamran said the zero-tolerance policy against kite sellers, kite makers and kite flyers would continue to be enforced.
The two actions follow a run of similar cases across the district. Police recently arrested two inter-district kite dealers with 520 kites, foiled a chemical string supply at Shera Kot and seized 600 kites in an earlier Race Course raid.
The enforcement is not a contradiction of the province’s Basant plans. Basant 2027 has been scheduled for 12 to 14 March under the Punjab Regulation of Kite Flying Act, 2025, but the general prohibition on kite flying and on the sale of kite material remains in force until then, and it will remain in force permanently for anything outside the licensed framework.
Chemical and metal-coated string is the reason the festival was banned for 18 years. It cuts through skin at speed, has killed motorcyclists and pedestrians in Lahore for two decades, and shorts overhead power lines. Nothing in the 2027 framework legalises it: only approved kite sizes, cotton string and panna are permitted, and only from licensed producers.
Meanwhile, more than 2,500 manufacturer applicants are still waiting for the licences that would let them produce legally — a gap the illegal supply chain is currently filling.
Suspects named in this report are accused and have not been convicted of any offence.
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