ISLAMABAD: Brightly colored kites soared through the skies over Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore this weekend, marking the return of a festival after a 19-year ban that had been imposed over safety concerns.
Families and groups of friends gathered on rooftops and in parks and streets for the three-day kite-flying festival in Punjab province, known as ‘Basant’, the Urdu language word for the spring season it traditionally marks the arrival of.
“Everyone is excited — all of Punjab, all of Pakistan. It has become hard to find kites and strings because they sold out,” said Shahzaib, a kite flyer, with drums playing in the background.
Punjab authorities banned the festival in 2007 due to a series of fatal accidents caused by glass powdered-coated kite strings and celebratory aerial gunfire.
The exceptionally sharp strings, known as manjha, had badly injured and killed pedestrians and motorcyclists, prompting the crackdown.
