Illegal spring festival - 23rd February 2022

Dozens of young people in Pakistan are taking part in a festival banned by the government. The festival's called Basant and has been a spring festival celebration for many years. However, the government banned it in 2007 due to a number of accidents.

Kite flyers used to have kite fighting competitions. They would put acid on the kite strings and use piano wires in the kites to win the competitions. But sometimes, this ended in a large number of injuries and even deaths.

Kite fighting champions would celebrate with their supporters by shooting in the air. This practice added to the number of injured and dead people during the festival.

More than 1,500 police officers were sent to Rawalpindi to catch kite flyers. Senior police officer Waseem Riaz explains how they did it.

Waseem Riaz: "We have deployed our teams equipped with drone technology on three different high-rise buildings. We are using technology and binoculars to identify the points where kite flying, or aerial firing is taking place."

Many people, like Furkan Ahmed, think that the festival shouldn't be banned. Instead, they want the dangerous activities to be illegal.

Furkan Ahmed: "There should be a ban on aerial firing and the chemical strings. It's not in our domain to put a ban on the chemical strings. The government should ban the manufacturing of chemical strings. We are celebrating Basant peacefully, there is no aerial firing and no brawls."

Traditionally, Basant was a family celebration where girls used to dress in yellow. However, because of the ban, people are worried that their children and grandchildren won't get to enjoy the festival in the future.