Bodies of deceased colliers reach Shangla

SHANGLA:

The bodies of most of the colliers who had lost their lives in a deadly coal mine accident in the Sanjdi area of Balochistan reached their ancestral villages in the Shangla district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Saturday.

The arrival of the coffins resulted in widespread resentment and sorrow as Shangla's colliers are frequently killed in mine incidents without inviting any attention from the quarters concerned.

Most of the unfortunate miners belonged to Alpuri, Shangla's district headquarters.

In the incident which had taken place Thursday evening at a coal mine in Sanjdi five kilometres away from Balochistan's capital Quetta, a total of twelve miners, including ten from Shangla, had been buried alive when a coal pit had collapsed after a gas explosion caused by toxic methane gas.

The tragic incident had claimed the lives of all 12 colliers, including two siblings. The deceased miners from Shangla have been identified as Roshan Zaib, Izharuddin, Muhammad Yamin Malik, Amanullah, Nauman, Muhammad Shafi, Umar Wali, Wahid Zaman, Nizamuddin, Akbarullah, and Luqman (a resident of Swat).

Most of the deceased have now been laid to rest in their ancestral villages.