Hyderabad, Jan. 12 -- As the festive spirit of Sankranti rises and the winter sky fills with colourful kites, an invisible danger lurks overhead. What is meant to be a celebration of joy, togetherness and tradition has increasingly become a season of fear. The culprit is the notorious "killer manja" - the Chinese and glass-coated thread that has turned a harmless pastime into a lethal threat, not only for birds and animals but for humans as well.

Reports of bike riders suffering grievous injuries due to razor-sharp manja are pouring in from across the city. In a recent incident at Uppal, a software engineer narrowly escaped death when the Chinese manja slit his throat while he was riding his motorcycle. Alert passers-by rushed him to a n...