Kite flying kills 2, injures 6 as Punjab slacks off on Chinese string

Two boys were killed and six others injured in separate incidents linked to use of banned Chinese kite string or chasing of kites in different parts of Punjab in the past 24 hours.

Special DGP Arpit Shukla had on Thursday said in the last 20 days, police teams seized 80,879 bundles of Chinese dor and registered 90 FIRs against individuals involved in selling these fatal kite strings across the state. However, fresh incidents show that the banned string is still being sold at shops.

A tragic case was reported on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana highway near Chehlan village in Samrala, where 15-year-old Taranjot Singh of Rohla village lost his life. The Class 10 student was returning home from school on a motorcycle with his friend when his neck got entangled in the sharp synthetic kite string, locally called "China dor". He suffered severe injuries and died soon after.

Khanna SSP Darpan Ahluwalia said the boy's family staged a protest. They relented after officials assured strict action. A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was registered against unknown persons. In Jalandhar, nine-year-old Shubham died after falling into a 10-foot trench while trying to retrieve a kite near Suranussi. The waterlogged pit proved fatal. His friends, too scared to inform anyone, stayed silent until police recovered the body the next morning.

In Barnala, three persons were injured by the banned string, one of them seriously enough to be referred to All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bathinda. He received 12 stitches on his throat. The police registered an FIR against three sellers, including the minor son of a former municipal councillor. In Muktsar, two boys suffered throat and finger injuries.

In Abohar, 27-year-old Bhupinder was critically injured when a Chinese string cut his throat while

he was riding a motorcycle with his father. He received 15 stitches.

Meanwhile, at Amritsar's Chheharta fair, hundreds of youths openly used the banned string during Basant Panchami, with little police action visible.

(With inputs from Praful Chander Nagpal, Archit Watts, Nikhil Bhardwaj, Deepkamal Kaur and

Charanjit Teja)