Pakistan's banned kite festival

Lots of young Pakistanis are celebrating Basant. Basant is Pakistan's kite festival. It is an old festival. Basant celebrates spring and the wind. But in 2007, there were lots of accidents. So, the government made the festival illegal.

In the past, people had kite fights. They used dangerous materials to make their kites win. This was not safe and sometimes people died.

Winners of the kite fights celebrated with guns. They shot in the air. But sometimes this killed people.

In Rawalpindi, many people flew kites from their rooftops. Over 1,500 police officers tried to stop the illegal celebrations. Waseem Riaz is a senior police officer.

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 don't want the festival to stop. They think only kite fights and gun shooting should be illegal. Furkan Ahmed flies kites.

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."

Basant was a big family event. Girls wore yellow clothing to the festival. It's a tradition. Local people want their children and grandchildren to enjoy the colourful festival again.

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