GUJRANWALA: A metal-coated kite string slit the throat of a minor here in Mujahidpura on Sunday, ARY News reported.

Three-year-old Ibrahim and his father were going to a local market on a motorcycle when the child came in contact with the kite string.

The child was rushed to the District Headquarters Hospital in critical condition as the blood oozed through his neck.

Though under treatment, the child is still said to be in a critical condition as doctors struggle to save his life.

Like other parts of Punjab, Gujranwala is also in the grip of kite-flying fever as spring approaches.

The heralding of the spring – termed Basant in Punjabi – is the preferred season for kite-flying.

However, the leisure activity claims several lives each year and injures hundreds due to the usage of metal-coated strings for the activity.

Sharp strings are used to cut the strings of rivals’ kites, but they often end up slitting throats of the people.

In September, the Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar had ordered a complete ban on flying kites in Lahore and other parts of the province.

The CM, while expressing his disappointment over flouting of the ban by the public and lack of seriousness by Police in ban implementation, had instructed for strong action against the violation of the kite flying ban after a youngster lost his life in one such incident at Lahore’s Bhati Gate.

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