LAHORE  - Following the Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) ordered the cops to step up clamp down on the kite-flyers at least 170 violators have been put behind the bars in different police stations.
A police spokesperson said that more than 15000 kites worth hundreds of thousands of rupees, kite-paper, and 300 spools of kite string have been seized. A massive crackdown launched on the orders of CCPO Chaudhry Shafique Ahmad is also underway in the provincial metropolis as the cops are conducting raids on factories manufacturing kites and chemical string to stop the sale kite flying material. The police raided two factories in the Ichra and Sanda areas on Wednesday and arrested three accused identified as Razzaq, Shahid, and Fiaz alias Phaja.
Meanwhile, police have arrested 170 accused involved in kite-flying from different areas during the last one week. The police have also registered cases against them.
According to officials, SP Model Town Tariq Aziz and SP Iqbal Town Tauseef Haider on a tip off constituted police teams headed by SHO Ichra Ehsan Ashraf Butt and SHO Sanda Hamad Akhtar. The police teams raided the factories involved in illegal trade of producing kites and related material and supplying it to Peshawar, Gujranwala, Kasur, Sheikhupura and Rawalpindi.
The accused persons were planning to supply the material to Peshawar and were engaged in this business for a long time. DIG (Operations) Rana Abdul Jabbar has announced commendatory certificates for the police teams.
Meanwhile, the city police chief has directed the police to step up the campaign in the provincial metropolis to halt the illegal trade. CCPO Chaudhry Shafique Ahmed has also warned the police officers particularly the station house officers (SHOs) that they would be held responsible and taken to task in case of any untoward incident related to kite-flying occurred in their jurisdiction.