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Maimings bolster anti-kite fundamentalists

The skies over this eastern Pakistani city were once dotted with brightly colored kites, swooping and looping in intense dogfights -- a local obsession.

But now the kites are gone, victims of a three-month ban that is intended to give officials time to decide the fate of the popular pastime in Lahore. Some argue that kite flying is un-Islamic because the aerial battles often involve gambling. Others say it's too dangerous and blame kites for numerous injuries and even deaths.

The main worry is something that appears harmless: kite string. But this is no ordinary twine. Designed to cut the strings of other kites in aerial combat, the cord is reinforced with metal and sometimes glass powder, making it sharp enough to slice through human skin or even electric wires.

Every year, newspapers report gruesome stories about fingers being sliced off or people getting electrocuted because their strings became tangled with power lines. Many kite fliers have also been killed by falling off roofs, especially during the peak kite-flying season of Basant, a three-day festival in February celebrating the approach of spring.

Mian Amer Mehmood, chief of the district government, said at least 45 people have died within the past six months in such incidents.

"A game should be a game and not a source of danger to the public," Mehmood said.

The city has also been plagued by blackouts, especially in old Lahore, when metal on cut kites fall to earth. Some hit electrical wires, causing short circuits. The city says blackouts every Sunday have cost the city an average of 3.12 million Pakistani rupees (US$54,044).

Since the ban, which began July 1, the kite-related blackouts have decreased significantly, costing the city just 120,000 rupees (US$2,078) each weekend.

While the city feels that its ban is justifiable, hundreds of shopkeepers, kite flyers and kite makers in Lahore are upset. They are challenging the ban in court under the umbrella of the All Pakistan Kite Flying and Manufacturing Association.

Kite dealer Farhat Abbas, 35, is one of those hit hard by the ban.

In the old Mochi Gate neighborhood in central Lahore, he's now struggling to eke out a living selling less-profitable trinkets and Pakistani flags.

"Thousands of people who have been earning their livelihood by making kites are now jobless and hopeless," he said.

Grocery store owner Adeel Quereshi said kite flying was one of the few leisure activities people could do in jumbled old neighborhoods with narrow streets.

"What does this have to do with Islam? Where did Islam ban it?" he asked.

But Lahore is not budging from its stand, and some city officials are saying that betting on kite flying, especially during Basant, is extravagant and un-Islamic.

"The use of fire crackers, music and dance on such occasions are un-Islamic," wrote Khawaja Mohammed Afzal, the city's legal adviser, in a brief to the Lahore courts.

Officials have said that anyone caught violating the ban will get three to 10 years in prison.

"There are even proposals that deaths caused by the metal string would be treated as murder," said Khawaja Khalid Farooq, city police chief. He added that 180 ban violators have been arrested since July 1.

Meanwhile, the skies are empty over western Lahore's Minto Park, where each evening hundreds of kites once fluttered in the sky. Kite fliers have deserted their mecca.

As he milled around in the park, Ramzan Ali, 16, said he resented being forced to abandon his favorite hobby.

"Why do I have to follow the ban when I never used a metal-coated wire?" he asked.

The ban also puzzled 12-year-old Saeed Anwar, who was suffering from serious kite withdrawal.

"What I must do is fly kites," the 6th grader said. "It gives me a sense of going higher and higher and higher."
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