Dozens of Basant revellers hurt

Published March 3, 2007

KASUR, March 2: Dozens of people, including children, suffered injuries while celebrating Basant here on Thursday night and Friday.

Umar Farooq, 12, and Maqsood, 9, were referred to the Lahore General Hospital due to critical condition.

Although people celebrated Basant on Feb 22 and 23, this time the festivities are a part of the Urs of Hazrat Imam Shah Bukhari.

The sounds of gunfire, fireworks and yelling and roaring in jubilation have been continuing for the last two days making it difficult to have a sound sleep. Long power outages have also been reported from different parts of the city as a result of use of metal wire for kite flying. Police claimed to have arrested 14 people on Friday and 20 on Thursday night.

Despite police operation, revellers continue to make a mockery of ban on Basant. People from Kasur and other cities, including Lahore, have been enjoying second Basant in a week.

Social circles have strongly condemned the situation and said if the Punjab government could violate the orders of apex court, how can it expect people to obey the ban.

KIDNAPPED: Three people, including two women, were kidnapped in two different incidents on Friday.

Ishaq and his armed accomplices forcibly entered the house of Imran in Bilalpura and kidnapped him and his wife Uzma at gunpoint.

In the other incident, Shahbaz and his accomplices kidnapped ‘K’, the daughter of a farmer from the limits of Chunnian police. — Correspondent

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