Quetta mine collapse death toll rises to 23

In a separate incident, in the Marwar area, a gas explosion followed by a mudslide took the lives of 16 miners. The blast was a result of the accumulation of methane gas in three branches connected to the main mine.

The workers could not escape the fatal atmosphere as the landslip dumped rubble at the exit point, trapping everyone inside.

Two of the deceased miners hail from Balochistan, whereas the remaining 21 are natives of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Shangla district. Additionally, a total of 11 workers were injured in both incidents.

Unfortunately, the 21 from KP include 15 who were members of the same family and neighbours in the village of Zara, which is now making funeral preparations for the mass deaths. A complete shutter down is being observed in Shangla’s Alpuri tehsil as the villagers mourn the loss of their close ones.

BILAWAL SHOCKED OVER DEATH OF 23 LABOURERS:

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday expressed deep grief and sorrow over the deaths of 23 labourers in the collapse of a coal mine near Quetta.

He condoled with the bereaved families who lost their loved ones in the coal mine collapse and asked the government to pay compensation to them immediately. He stressed for measures to protect the coal mine workers from such accidents in future.

On Sunday, the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PMCLF) held a protest outside the Quetta Press Club, demanding that the person responsible for the incident come forward, and a sum of Rs2 million be paid to each victim’s family as compensation for working in life-threatening conditions that eventually led to the tragedies.

Coal mining on its own is a risky job but in Pakistan, the odds against the miners have a higher percentage as regulations are not implemented. Mine explosions are common in the country with the PCMLF reporting the deaths of between 100 and 200 labourers every year.

In April 2018 alone, 11 miners met with their maker in two separate mine explosions in Darra Adam Khel and Jhelum. Most of the workers lose their lives in Shangla district, Pakistan’s leading contributor of poor workers to the mining industry where safety measures lead from the bottom.

In 2015 and 2016, seven miners died in a similar explosion in Balochistan’s Dukki area and eight in an explosion in Doli area of the Orakzai Agency, respectively. Twelve of them were from Shangla.

A few days later, they were dealt with by the distribution of Rs50,000 cheques at the event of an orphanage launch.