LAHORE, March 12: Around 1,500 people were picked up in different parts of Punjab — 857 of them in Lahore, on Sunday on the charge of violating the ban on kite flying.
Also, dozens of people suffered injuries in the city in various incidents as Lahorites and their guests, who had come from different cities and abroad to celebrate the Basant, flouted the ban.
While flying kites, revellers also fired gunshots in the air and used fireworks and the kite-flying material prohibited by the government.
“I cannot give you an exact number. But we have been receiving the injured since morning. Injuries were caused by string or stray bullets. A few of victims fell from rooftops,” a Mayo Hospital official said.
A doctor at the Services Hospital gave a similar statement.
A hide and seek had been continuing between police and kite buffs since Friday evening when the ban was imposed by the provincial government.
Initially, a section of people expected that the ban would be relaxed and did not go for the kite flying. But when it did not happen, the kite buffs let loose their passion for the sport despite massive hunting by police, especially after midnight on Saturday.
When it appeared that police were tired of the strenuous duty of climbing rooftops, even reluctant enthusiasts started flying kites in the early hours of Sunday.
Police resumed their raids on Sunday morning, but by the afternoon people started ignoring them leaving many a policeman no better than silent spectators.
“How can I climb over each and every rooftop,” said a police constable, who was part of a raiding team in Gulshan-i-Ravi.
City police chief Additional IG Khwaja Khalid Farooq said police had made all out efforts to get the ban enforced.
“Not a single death has so far been reported on this Basant, while 19 people were killed last year. This, I think, is just because of the effective enforcement by police.”
He said some people had tried to disrupt arrangements made to enforce the ban by spreading rumours that it would be lifted on Basant.
“Let me make it clear that the ban is very much there. A crackdown against violators is under way. Nobody is allowed to violate the ban,” he stressed.
Mr Farooq said around 500 cases had been registered against violators.
He warned that departmental action would be taken against the police personnel who had failed to stop violations.
Earlier, police teams equipped with ladders patrolled the city streets on foot or in their vehicles to look for violators.
Policemen were also seen detailed on rooftops of many buildings to detect violators on adjacent buildings.
Though the extent of kite flying on this Basant was much less than previous years, aerial firing and use of fireworks continued in many parts of the city.