The death toll has reached 16 over a period of three weeks at a stone crushing site in Sargodha when one more labourer lost his life on Saturday while working at the crushing site.
The market where the incident took place in said to be the largest stone crushing site of Punjab, where building material of various sorts is prepared and around 20,000 labourers work at the site, daily
According to rescue sources, 33-year-old Gulzar was working up a hill at the stone crushing site in 120 South when a boulder struck him, killing him on the spot. He was a resident of Sargodha’s village 48 South.
A similar incident took place on September 27 that killed six on-duty labourers on the spot. To add more to their miseries, it is also said that families of over 60 labourers — who died in similar incidents earlier — have not been compensated for the death of their loved ones.
The deaths usually take place when labourers climb the hills to place explosive material for blasting. They rush down to hide in a safe spot — usually a nearby cave — within a certain time period. But miscalculation on the direction of falling rocks claims their lives.
Although officers of the mines, social welfare and security departments are present in Sargodha, they have not yet taken any step to put in place safety measures for the labourers.
