Remains of 16 coal-miners buried in Shangla amid grief

BISHAM: The remains of the 16 coalminers were buried in their respective graveyards in Shangla district amid grief and mourning on Saturday.

The collective funeral prayers were held after their bodies were transported by the Rescue 1122 ambulances to Shangla following their recovery from Kala Chaphar area in Kohat district.

Besides PTI provincial ministers Shaukat Ali Yousufzai and Arif Ahmadzai, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Amir Muqam and officials of district administration and a large number of people attended the funeral prayers held at Shangla’s main town and headquarters, Alpuri.

Talking to the media, Shaukat Yousufzai and Arif Ahmadzai expressed profound grief over the tragic incident and assured that every help would be extended to the bereaved families.

They said that Chief Minister Mahmoud Khan had already announced a compensation package for each affected family.

The remains of the 16 coalminers abducted by suspected militants in the former Khyber Agency nearly a decade ago were recovered from a mass grave in the area on Friday.

Those abducted totaled 32 coalminers, who belonged to the Shangla district. They were working their routine night shift in a coalmine of the Kala Khel area in Khyber Agency when gunmen kidnapped all of them.

Of these, 16 miners later managed to escape, while the other 16 remained missing.

No claim of responsibility was made by any militant group at the time. The coalminers’ families lived in grief all these years as they had no idea if they were alive or dead. The kidnappers had been demanding ransom which the poor families were unable to pay and also due to uncertainty if they would be freed.

Efforts to trace the abducted workers remained unsuccessful for nearly 10 years until their bodies were found in a mass grave discovered at Toor Sapawar Pastawana area of Khyber tribal district.