Three dead in Haripur as mine caves in

HARIPUR:

Three miners were buried alive when a coal mine collapsed in Bagh Dara village in Haripur district, police and villagers said on Friday.

The miners were engaged in illegal excavation despite a warning by the mines department, Assistant Superintendent of Police Ghazi Wahid Mehmood said.

He added that the three miners were excavating raw coal from the mine that was leased out to a contractor named Lal Khan by the minerals department. He added that the contractor had been warned against digging in risky areas.

However, ignoring the warning, the contractor would excavate during the night. On Thursday night, when three miners were digging, the mine collapsed on them. All the three mine workers were killed on the spot. Their colleagues retrieved the bodies after an effort of three hours and were preparing to hand over to their heirs without informing the police.

The contractors took the bodies to their village near Hasan Abdal and were preparing to send them to their ancestral villages after offering funeral prayers, police said.

However, the Ghazi police received the information and took the bodies into custody and later shifted them to Haripur Women and Children Hospital. The deceased were identified as brothers Shahid and Omar Saeed, from Shangla, Swat, and Asif from Nowshera.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 11^th, 2012.