During the first five months of this year, 18 accidents took place in the coal mines of Balochistan, in which 24 miners died….reports Asian Lite News
Poor labourers are losing their lives every day due to the absence of facilities in Balochistan’s coal mines, The Baloch Circle reported.
The Baloch Circle focuses on issues surrounding Baloch. In 2022, 288 miners lost their lives in accidents across Pakistan, of which 166 miners belonged to Balochistan. During the first five months of this year, 18 accidents took place in the coal mines of Balochistan, in which 24 miners died.
Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission in early 2023, expressed concern in its ‘fact-finding report’ in the context of accidents in the mines of Balochistan in 2022 and demanded that the central government should ensure that the federal government implements international laws to protect miners.
According to reports of the All Pakistan Labor Federation, more than 3800 coal mines are currently active across Balochistan, in which more than 100,000 workers extract more than ten million tons of coal every year. Coal mined from Balochistan alone accounts for more than 50 per cent of the total coal mined in Pakistan on an annual basis.
As per The Baloch Circle, it is a matter of grave concern that every year hundreds of workers lose their lives due to lack of adequate facilities in these mines and their entire families suffer along with them but they say that the life of the poor has no value to anyone. It doesn’t matter.
Two labourers, Sharaf Khan and Abdul Baqi were stuck in a mine about 900 feet deep for the past one and a half months in the Miraj area of the Dukki district located in the north-east of Balochistan and have not been able to come out yet.
His brother Abdul Basir says that the grief and yearning of his brother and cousin who were trapped on May 4 has been forgotten by the world and the media too. They are trapped inside the earth, but we who are living on the earth have no peace either. There is no rest anywhere.
Abdul Basir says that his eight brothers and relatives have been forced to spend day and night here in severe agony for the past 40 days. Eid is fast approaching which is why we are more concerned, as per The Baloch Circle. (ANI)
