11 Dead In Pakistan Kite-Flying Festival

Perhaps Michael Moore was actually propagandizing for the war when he showed kite-flying children in Iraq. After all, these things are deadly.

Particularly in Pakistan, where what sounds like a sorta fun idea -- kite "battles," with opponents attempting to cut the lines of each other's kites, using their own kite lines, sharpened with ground glass -- inevitably results in people getting beheaded. By kites.

Add in a little gunfire and you've got yourself a party.

At least 11 people died and more than 100 people were injured at an annual spring festival in eastern Pakistan celebrated with the flying of thousands of colorful kites, officials said Monday.

The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops on Sunday at the conclusion of the two-day Basant festival, said Ruqia Bano, spokeswoman for the emergency services in the city of Lahore.

The festival is regularly marred by casualties caused by sharp kite strings or celebratory gunshots fired into the air. Kite flyers often use strings made of wire or coated with ground glass to try to cross and cut a rival's string or damage the other kite, often after betting on the outcome.

Authorities temporarily lifted a ban on kite flying that was imposed following a string of deaths at the festival last year. Lahore Mayor Mian Amier Mahmood said the two-day permission to fly kites ended Sunday and that the ban has been re-imposed.

Police arrested more than 700 people for using sharpened kite strings or firing guns, and seized 282 illegally held weapons during this year's festival, said Aftab Cheema, a senior Lahore police officer.

Even their kite-flying festivals have bodycounts. Sheesh.

posted by Ace at 02:05 PM

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