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20 killed in kites flying festival in Pakistan
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-02-07 14:39
Participants and
onlookers look up at Lahore's sky littered with hundreds of colorful kites
during the kite flying festival, Basant, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2005, in Lahore,
Pakistan. Pakistanis celebrate Basant festival by flying different kinds
of kites, wearing colorful dresses, dancing and preparing special dishes
for visitors to welcome spring, while tight security on the ground guarded
against threats from hard-liners who condemn the revelry as un-Islamic.
[AP] |
At least 17 people including eight
children lost their lives and more than 500 injured while celebrating Basant or
kites flying festival Sunday in Lahore, capital of eastern Punjab province,
taking the death toll to 20 as three people were killed on Basant night, The
Nation reported Monday.
Mohammad Asharf,
front, who was seriously injured when specially reinforced kite string cut
his throat while he was riding on a motorbike, is attended by his brother
at a local hospital in Lahore, Pakistan on Sunday, Feb. 6,
2005. | Seven persons were crushed to death while
trying to catch stray kites, six others died after falling from rooftop of their
houses, two teenage boys died after being hit by stray bullets in two different
incidents, while a 7-years old boy was electrocuted and a four years-old girl
was killed when a stray string slit open her throat.
Rescue officials said they picked up at least 24 patients whose throats were
cut by twine at different roads and shifted them to hospitals.
Throughout the day, the city remained echoing with aerial firing and
fireworks and peaked at the sunset.
Sunday's killing of 17 persons took the death toll to 20 in the night-and-day
festival this year. Last year too, as many as 20 persons were killed in Lahore
while celebrating the yearly Basant.
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