Eleven dead, over 100 injured at Pakistani kite flying festival, officials say

WSTM.com (New York) / AP ^ | February 26, 2007

[Stoat]

Eleven dead, over 100 injured at Pakistani kite flying festival, officials say

LAHORE, Pakistan An annual kite festival in eastern Pakistan has left at least eleven people dead. Officials say two died after their throats were cut by metal kite strings. Kite flyers often use string made of wire or coated with ground glass to try to cut the strings of rivals or damage other kites.

The festival is also often marked with celebratory gunshots fired into the air. Five people died after being hit by stray bullets. Two people were electrocuted when they tried to untangle kites from overhead power cables.

Two others fell from roofs. One was a boy chasing a stray kite. Another was a woman trying to stop her son from going after a kite. Police arrested more than 700 people during this year's festival for using sharpened kite strings or firing guns. Officials say they also seized more than 280 illegally held weapons.

[Stoat]

News stories like this make me want to shake my head in amazement and then immediately kiss the ground and thank God that I was Blessed to have been born in America.

More on this from Fox News:

FOXNews.com - 11 Dead, Over 100 Hurt at Kite Flying Festival in Pakistan - International News News of the World Middle East News Europe News

".......

Five of those who died on Sunday were hit by stray bullets, including a 6-year-school boy who was struck in the head near his home in the city's Mazang area, Bano said.

A 16-year-old girl and a school boy, 12, died after their throats were slashed by metal kite strings in separate incidents. Two people were electrocuted while they tried to recover kites tangled in overhead power cables, Bano said.

A 13-year-old boy fell to his death from the roof of his home as he tried to catch a stray kite, and a 35-year-old woman fell off the roof of her home trying to stop her son from running after a stray kite, Bano said.

....."

[toddlintown]

Animals who should be put down.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

So, in Pakistan, when someone tells you to "go fly a kite," they're really wishing some serious harm on you?

[Stoat]

So, in Pakistan, when someone tells you to "go fly a kite," they're really wishing some serious harm on you?

Apparently so. :-)

You would think that after a few years of this sort of thing happening regularly, they might, as a people, decide that perhaps this was not a really good way to celebrate or at least to do it in a controlled way so that you don't have this sort of thing happening.....but year after year it doesn't change.  The Mayor instituted a ban on this last year, but lifted it for this year's celebrations, apparently thinking that people would exercise a bit more caution.

But Nooo......

[Dixie Yooper]

It's all fun and games until someone get hit by stray bullet, or get their throat cut by a metal kite string, or gets electrocuted by live power lines, or falls off of a roof trying to jump for a stray kite, or fall off a roof tying to jump for someone who's jumping for a stray kite.

[Uncle Chip]

Another thing to watch out for: Muslims flying kites: Kite Jihad.

[nctexan]

"Officials say they also seized more than 280 illegally held weapons."

A good reason for stronger Pakistani gun kite control...

[norwaypinesavage]

Bring the troops home!

[Joe Boucher]

No way man, our State Dept. wants to let a whole passel of them come to the U.S. to live.
Cultural diversity and all.

[metmom]

News stories like this make me want to shake my head in amazement and then immediately kiss the ground and thank God that I was Blessed to have been born in America.

AMEN to that!!!!!!

What is it about islam that does this to people? Or is it just too much inbreeding? islam is the scourge of the earth and needs to be eraditcated. Bunch of inhuman callous......

[PissAndVinegar]

but they're Hindu:

Basant — which means yellow in Hindi — symbolizes the yellow mustard flowers that usually blossom in Pakistan at this time of the year.

[PissAndVinegar]

As I said to UC - they're Hindu:

Basant — which means yellow in Hindi — symbolizes the yellow mustard flowers that usually blossom in Pakistan at this time of the year.

[metmom]

Never woulda guessed it. The MO reads too much like a islamic wedding celebration.

[Farmer Dean]

I bet the video would be prtty entertaining though....

[highlander_UW]

It's a kite quagmire!

[SeeSalt]

"Two people were electrocuted when they tried to untangle kites from overhead power cables."


Couldn't believe how much damage power cables inflict in Muslim world. Ban them!

[Farmer Dean]

Mo,I told you not to take the AK to festival...

[ClaireSolt]

Life is very cheap in Pakistan.

[DustyMoment]

I sense some Darwin Awards, here.

[LonePalm]

As Paul Harvey would say, "It's not one world."

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)