RAWALPINDI: A 12-year-old boy was killed when kite string cut his throat at Committee Chowk on Friday.

Talha Mehmood was travelling with his parents on a motorcycle when metal kite string slit his throat and he started bleeding profusely, his family members said.

A man shifted the boy to the District Headquarters Hospital in his car where doctors declared him dead.

“Due to excessive bleeding, the child had already expired before reaching hospital,” a senior doctor told Dawn.

Moving scenes were witnessed when his body arrived at his house in Saidpuri Gate (Banni), as young and old were seen crying and criticising the local police.

The Punjab government has imposed a strict ban on kite flying in the province but it is being ignored in Rawalpindi as sky was filled with kites on Friday in the limits of Waris Khan and Banni police.

Deaths and injuries caused by stray bullets, electrocution and sharpened kite-strings, falling off rooftops are common during kite flying in the city.

Kite flyers often use metal or grinded glass coated strings.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2016