Two children, Army man killed in separate incidents as ‘manja’ strings slash throats

Hyderabad/Ahmedabad/Dhar, January 14

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Two children and an Army man were killed after sustaining injuries when ‘manja’ strings allegedly slit their throats in separate incidents.

An army man was injured while he was riding a two-wheeler on a flyover in Hyderabad, police said.

The incident happened on Saturday evening when the army man, aged around 30, came in contact with the ‘manja’ thread which is suspected to have cut his throat, resulting in bleeding, a senior police official said.

“He suffered a cut-throat injury. He was shifted to a hospital where he died while undergoing treatment,” the official said.

A native of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, he worked as a driver at the Military Hospital here, the official said.

A case was registered at Langar House Police Station.

A four-year-old boy died after his throat was slit by the sharp string of a kite in Gujarat’s Mahisagar district on the occasion of Uttarayan on Sunday, with several others sustaining injuries in kite-related incidents across the state, officials said.

The Uttarayan festival, also known as Makar Sankranti, is traditionally associated with kite flying.

The child, Tarun Machhi, was on his way home on his father’s motorcycle when a kite string slashed his throat near Boradi village on Sunday afternoon, an official from Kothamba police station in the district said.

The child was sitting at the front of the motorcycle’s seat. He suffered a deep gash on his neck and died after bleeding profusely even before he could be given treatment, the official said.

Meanwhile, at least 66 persons sustained kite thread-related injuries in Gujarat on Uttarayan, said the EMRI Green Health Services, which operates the 108 ambulance service in the state.

Of these, 27 kite-related injuries were reported from Ahmedabad, EMRI said. Vadodara saw seven such cases, followed by Surat (6), Rajkot (4) and Bhavnagar (4), it said.

A seven-year-old boy riding pillion on a motorcycle with his father died after his throat was slashed by the sharp string of a kite in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar city, officials said.

Police said action would be taken after the investigation.

The incident occurred at Hatwara Chowk in the city when one Vinod Chouhan was riding a bike with his seven-year-old son.

“Chouhan took his injured son to a private hospital from where he was referred to the district hospital where doctors declared him dead,” officials said.

Dr Amit Sisodia said a seven-year-old boy was brought to the district hospital with his throat slit by the sharp kite string.

“The boy had died by the time he was brought to the hospital,” Dr Sisodia said.

City Superintendent of Police (CSP) Ravindra Vaskel said action would be taken against those people in possession of the Chinese string or sharp string.

Dhar’s Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Roshani Patidar said the administration ran a campaign against the Chinese ‘manja’ (string) in the last ten days.

“This is a sad incident. We have formed teams and a search operation has been intensified,” she said.