Nine perish in Quetta coal mine tragedy

Ag AFP

QUETTA: Pakistani authorities said Tuesday they had rescued one miner who survived two days trapped in a coal mine after a fire that killed nine other workers in Degari coal mine tragedy.

The Degari coal mine is run by the state-owned Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation. Most coal mines in the impoverished province are notorious for poor safety standards and facilities where scores of similar deadly accidents have occurred in the past.

An electrical short circuit sparked the blaze on Sunday at the mine east of Quetta, the capital of oil and mineral rich Balochistan province. Eleven miners were working around 4,000 feet (1,200 metres) underground at the time. One was quickly saved but poisonous carbon monoxide gas hampered rescue efforts.

Officials confirmed on Tuesday that just one of the remaining ten had been discovered alive. “We have found nine dead bodies,” Abdullah Shahwani, a top provincial official for the industry, told AFP. The surviving miner was critically injured, he said. Provincial government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani confirmed the toll.

According to the Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF), between 100 and 200 labourers die on average in coal mine accidents every year.Unsatisfactory working conditions inside coal mines in Balochistan claim the lives of miners on an almost daily basis in areas like Harnai, Sowrange, Dukki, Mach and other parts of the province. Such incidents often go unreported.

On March 20, it was reported that as many as 164 labourers working in coal mines lost their lives and 300 more were facing serious injuries during the last year in various mines of Balochistan. In most of the incidents, labourers were digging 300 feet deep in coal mines where they reportedly suffocated to death owing to lack of oxygen, All Pakistan Labour Federation President Sultan Muhammad Khan had said.

He had said about 0.3 million labourers were employed across the province as each site consists of more than 1,000 mines including Chamalang, Luni, Harnai, Mach, Dukki, Marwar and Low range area of the province.

Sultan had said around 33 cases of death and 70 cases of injuries were reported during this year in the province due to the negligence of the authorities. He had said the main reason for the deaths in the mines was the lack of oxygen and explosion due to methane gas.

Sultan had said most of the labourers working in the field were facing dangerous diseases including kidney, asthma and lever problems. He had said the main reason behind their diseases was absence of clean drinking water and basic health facilities. He asked the government to take the issue more seriously and make efforts to implement the law for overcoming coal mine incidents. Sultan had said the government is collecting a lot of revenue from coal mining and the labourers are being compensated with Rs. 200,000 of death grant, which should be increased to 500,000 per person. The government should implement Occupational Safety and Health Situation to overcome the accidents which occur in coal mining, he said.