11 Dead At Pakistani Kite Festival (including children)

[muriel_volestrangler]

At least 11 people died and more than 100 people were injured at an annual spring festival in eastern Pakistan celebrated with the flying of thousands of colorful kites, officials said Monday.

The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops on Sunday at the conclusion of the two-day Basant festival, said Ruqia Bano, spokeswoman for the emergency services in the city of Lahore.
...
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.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/26/world/main2514554.shtml

That's not a festival, it's a cull.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. hope they got the proper permit . . .

nutty bastards.

[maddezmom]

2. OMG

that's awful :cry:

[Kagemusha]

3. I'm pretty sure they instituted new, and promptly ignored regulations for this

I heard as much either last year or the year before, for all the good it's obviously done.

[Porcupine]

4. Yup. I've got a kite that can lift me.

I weigh about 240 lbs. In a strong wind the tension on the spectra lines turns them into vibrating knives that will slice right through skin.

Kite flying is not for sissies.

[underpants]

5. and here we are sending one of our lightweights over there

[Journeyman]

6. Couldn't fly him very well, though. . . chimps don't have tails. . .

n/t

[Tinksrival]

9. Ha!Ha!

That was funny! :)

[Democrat 4 Ever]

7. Sorta off subject - if you haven't read "The Kite Runner" by

Khaled Hosseini pick up a copy today. It is a work of art. Gives insight into the culture that the neocons and reichwing espouse to destroy and/or subjugated with bombs, violence and rhetoric.

The words are a feast for the eyes, the story beautifully written. Should be required reading for Chucklenuts, maybe he would then see this region of the world is inhabited by humans with their own families, homes, cultures and lives.

[underpants]

8. No I hadn't heard of that

The reading list is getting really long.

[maxsolomon]

11. i stopped reading after the rape scene

it was really painful after that - i've enough guilt of my own.

[maxsolomon]

10. "sharpened" strings?

they're METAL WIRE, no one "sharpened" them.

i thought this was going to be a bombing story...

[yellowcanine]

12. They glue glass shards to the strings sometimes. Perhaps that is what was meant.

[maxsolomon]

14. oh yeah, i remember that from the kite runner

before i got bummed out by it

[JCMach1]

15. no, they use metal string... it's thin so very sharp...

think a thinly drawn out razor blade...

Fortunately no one died @ Basant in the UAE this year.

[Tinksrival]

13. Basant Festival Lahore

Visit Rehan's Flicker page here:

Festival starts on page 3 but all of his Lahore pics are fantastic

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rehanfazal/

[brentspeak]

16. Uh, did you read the OP article, which said that 11 people, including children, DIED?