Jammu: A retired Army junior commissioned officer died after a banned Chinese kite string slit his throat while he was riding a two-wheeler on the Jammu Ring Road, officials said on Monday. Naib Subedar (retd) Lakhvinder Singh, a resident of Mamka in R S Pura, suffered critical neck injuries late Sunday evening as he passed through the Bishnah stretch and later succumbed in hospital.
Singh had finished a shift as a private security guard at an industrial unit in Bari Brahmana and was returning home when the string, commonly called Chinese manjha or Gattu Dor, became entangled around his neck. Officials said the thread cut his throat as he rode. Passers-by and family members rushed him for treatment, but the wound proved fatal.
Police have registered a case under relevant sections of law and begun an investigation to identify those who flew the kite and those who sold or stocked the prohibited string. Officers said a crackdown on vendors has also been intensified after the death. Relatives of the former soldier have demanded stern action against sellers of the lethal thread, saying the ban exists only on paper if it can still stretch across a busy highway.
The Jammu district administration has imposed a blanket ban on the manufacture, sale, purchase, storage, transport and use of Chinese kite string. Despite that order, and despite arrests of shopkeepers in recent months for clandestine trade, the material continues to reach open spaces and roads.
Residents have questioned how a product known to slice skin can still be used above a ring road used by two-wheeler commuters every evening.
The string is made of synthetic nylon and coated with glass powder and metal, which makes it razor-sharp. Doctors and civic officials have long warned that it can kill or maim riders and pedestrians in seconds, especially when it hangs unseen across a carriageway. The same non-biodegradable thread also injures birds and can snap or short high-voltage lines, causing outages and the risk of electrocution.
Sunday’s death has revived a familiar cycle in Jammu: a ban, periodic raids, and another fatal cut on a public road. For a retired Naib Subedar who had completed his military service and taken up civilian guard duty to support his household, the ride home from Bari Brahmana to R S Pura ended on a stretch of ring road where a banned kite string was still in the air.
Police say they are working to trace the source. Families in the area say they want the string off the market before the next commuter meets the same thread.
