Balochistan: 6 miners trapped when fire erupted in a coal mine

Balochistan: 6 miners trapped when a fire erupted in a coal mine

Hussain Zarkoon :

In the Chamalang area of Balochistan, 6 miners trapped when a fire erupted inside the mine. Iftikhar Ahmed, a police officer said the miners were working deep inside the mine when abruptly a fire erupted.

“The miners are still inside the mine after 4 hours”, Mr. Ahmed said. Coal miners were extracting coal from almost 300 feet deep inside the mine when the fire erupted. “We have no details that how fire erupted”, Shafqat Fayyaz, the Chief Inspector Mines said.

Rescue operation launched in the affected coal mine to recover the trapped miners, he said. Technical staff from Quetta and Loralai rushed towards the affected mine to ensure unhurt recovery of miners, Mr. Fayyaz said.

“We spotted trapped miners earlier but now lost their contact”, Mr. Fayyaz said

“We spotted them inside the mine earlier”, he added. He however mentioned that currently, the rescue workers have lost their contact with the trapped miners. The hapless miners belonged to the Upper Deer area of Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa.

Chamalang area houses rich-coal reservoirs. Thousands of laborers, contractors have been extracting coal for last more than a decade. However, poor working conditions inside the coal mines of Chamalang and other parts of Balochistan continue to claim precious human lives.

Sultan Muhammad Khan, the Central leader of All Pakistan Labour Federation has lamented that such incidents were the order of the day. “Contractors are earning at the cost of poor laborers”, Mr. Khan said.  He demanded of the government to provide better safety facilities to the miners who risk their lives to earn a piece of daily bread.

Laborers associations have staged protest demonstrations to press the authorities to ensure the implementation of the coal mine act 1923.

More to follow