By Our Staff Reporter
QUETTA: Seven coal miners died inside a coal mine in Balochistan’s Degari area on Friday evening. Shafqat Fayyaz, the Chief Inspector Mines told Quetta Voice that three miners were also seriously wounded during the coal mine incident.
The dead bodies of the miners were retrieved by rescue workers and were being shifted to their native towns, Mr. Fayyaz said. “There was an explosion inside the mine”, the Chief Inspector Mines said, saying the exact cause of the blast was yet to be ascertained. The injured miners were shifted to the hospital for medical treatment.
The miners belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat, Shangla areas. Thousands of poverty-hit people from the impoverished parts of Swat have been working in coal mines of Balochistan. Hazardous working conditions and poor safety arrangements have been considered to be the underlying causes behind the increasing deaths of miners.
Inquiry Ordered
An inquiry into the incident has been ordered. This incident has come three days after a coal mine’s portion collapsed in Balochistan’s Mach area. Two coal miners had collapsed inside the mine.
Coalmine collapses in Balochistan’s Mach, two miners trapped
In Balochistan, hazardous working conditions inside coal mines continue to claim precious human lives. Such incidents have become almost the order of the day in the province. Incidents inside coal mines have claimed hundreds of human lives. “These coal mines have turned into death cells”, Sultan Muhammad Khan, a well-known labor leader said. He demanded of the government to bring an end to such incidents and improve working conditions for coal miners in the province.
