LAYYAH, Jan 12: Eight workers suffered burns, two of them critically, when hot sugarcane juice fell on them after a part of a boiler at a local sugar mills leaked here on Saturday.

According to witnesses, the accident occurred when the top vapour cone of the boiler unit of Layyah Sugar Mills got leaked around 12:30pm. Resultantly, eight of the labourers working in the unit -- Nasir, Mitho Khan, Arslan, Ameen, Bilal, Nadeem, Ismail and Tariq -- suffered burns.

They were immediately shifted to the local district headquarters hospital by the mills authorities.

According to sources, Nasir and Nadeem were later shifted to the Nishtar Hospital, Multan, because of their critical condition.

The condition of the remaining injured workers is said to be stable.

Anayatullah Kashif, a lawyer and labour rights activist, told Dawn: “The mills owner has hired untrained labourers on a contract basis to avoid his responsibility as enshrined in labour laws.”

It was the second such incident in the boiler section of the mills caused because of untrained workers, he added.

The mills administrative officer, Maj Riaz Ahmed (retired), maintained that the mills administration was bearing the cost of treatment of all injured workers so there was no question of avoiding responsibility.

Till the filing of this report, no case was registered against any mills officials.

The sub-inspector concerned, Walli Muhammad, maintained that a report would be filed after obtaining the statement of the concerned sugar mills officers.