Quetta: Six miners were found dead on Friday after they were trapped inside a coalmine in Bolan district that collapsed following a methane gas explosion the previous day.

A miner who went inside the mine to rescue his colleagues also lost his life after he inhaled the gas, according to an official of the Mines Directorate.

The explosion took place around 1,000 feet deep inside the mine in Marwar on Thursday when eight workers were busy digging for coal, Naseer Khan Nasar, Director General of the Pro­vincial Disaster Manag­e­m­e­­nt Authority (PDMA), said.

“At first we found only one body as the other five lay deep inside the collapsed mine. But after a frantic four-hour operation we found the other five bodies as well,” another official said.

The dead miners were identified as Abdul Rehman from Quetta, Sardar Wali, Madad Khan, Abdul Razzaq and Shafiq from Chaman and Muhammad Rahim from Muslim Bagh.

The Chief Inspector of Mines has ordered an investigation into the tragedy.

A total of 102 coalminers were killed in Balochistan in 72 incidents over the past one year, according to Sul­tan Muhammad Lala, president of the Balochistan Coal Mines Workers Federation.

“The government, as well as the mine owners, haven’t done anything to improve working conditions,” Sultan Lala bemoaned.

An explosion caused by methane gas at a coalmine in Marwar killed 20 workers in May 2018.

Another methane-fuelled explosion in Quetta claimed the lives of seven workers in August of that year.

Forty-five coalminers were killed in yet another explosion caused by methane gas in 2011.

According to the provincial Minerals Department, there are more than 2,800 coalmines in seven districts of Balochistan. They employ about 70,000 miners.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2021