LAHORE  - Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed has ordered the Lahore police to launch crackdown against kite-flying and ensure strict action against the violators, official sources said on Wednesday.
A police spokesman confirmed to The Nation that the city police chief had directed DIG (Operation) Rana Abdul Jabbar to launch the crackdown, afresh, against kite flying and kite sellers in the provincial metropolis. “In Lahore, all the station house officers (SHOs) are directed to take strict action against kite-flying. The police would observe zero-tolerance policy against the violators,” says the spokesman.
On the directions of DIG (Operations), special police teams are constituted in many areas to check kite-flyers and vendors of metallic twines and kites. The police are also asked to coordinate with the local administration to hunt down kite sellers.
Kite flying has been banned in the province for the past four years. The government had banned the main Basant activity because of deaths caused by the chemical twine used for flying kites and road mishaps. Hundreds of people had died in Basant related accidents in the past decade in Punjab. The large number of deaths forced the government to impose the ban on the activity.
Earlier, the Punjab government had announced to hold Basant festival at Changa Manga forest from February 21 till March 5. The formal notification was issued by the authorities but later the government again banned kite-flying.  The police and district administration are directed not to allow kite flying activities anywhere in Punjab. The government had warned of the strict action against the culprits violating the law.