Coalmine accident: Shangla mourns its dead miners

None of the 37 mine workers from the district was above the age of 25.

SWAT: Relatives of the miners killed in the Balochistan accident in Shangla district have received 37 bodies in three days.

All of the deceased were young men, aged between 18 and 25 years, and some were recently married. Rasool Khan lost his son and two brothers in the mine accident in which a total of 43 people were killed. “My son and brothers had been working in the coalmine for eight months,” he told The Express Tribune. “I had sent my son over there because we have no job opportunities in our area…all of us need to go elsewhere to earn a livelihood,” he added. “We have not yet received any help from the government. The mining company has given us Rs10,000,” Khan said.

Mohammad Afsar, father of miner Sher Bahadar said: “We are very poor. Working in coal mines is our only option for earning a livelihood. My son was married and father to a two-month old son. He was my eldest.”

People of the Ghwarband area are angry over the event and complain that the government never helps them in such incidents. “Nine people from our village were killed in a similar incident a year ago. Now 37 bodies have been brought here. It is the fault of the man who was in-charge of the mine… the project manager should have ensured safety,” said the president of Ghwarband Action Committee.

“The mine owners give Rs60,000 in advance salary to our people and then deduct it from their monthly income. They pay them a salary of Rs6,000 a month on an average,” he said. The accident on Sunday occurred when a coalmine collpased after explosions caused by accumulation of methane gas in the Sorange area, about 40 kilometres from Quetta.

At the time of the incident, workers from both shifts were inside what the provincial home secretary said was a 6,000-foot-deep mine. Rescue operations were delayed because of a lack of proper equipment at the mine, prompting local people to try and dig out the trapped miners on their own.

Most bodies were decomposed or completely burnt when they were recovered in what is said to be the worst mining accident in recent years. As many as 161 miners have been killed in Balochistan over the past three years.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2011.