KUNDUZ: At least 30 people were killed when a gold mine collapsed in northeastern Afghanistan on Sunday, officials said, in the latest tragedy to strike the war-torn country.

Another seven were injured in the incident in Kohistan district of Badakhshan province, district governor Moham­mad Rustam Raghi said.

Nek Mohammad Nazari, the spokesman for the provincial governor, said the villagers had dug deep in the river, which had in the past been mined for gold, when they were caught in the flash flood. The casualty numbers could rise, he said.

The victims were villagers who were mining for gold illegally, according to the official. “Rescue teams have been dispatched to the area to help in recovering the bodies,” Nazari said.

Sanaullah Rohani, spokesman for the police chief in Badakhshan, said seven of the injured were in critical condition. According to Rohani, there were about 50 people illegally looking for gold at the time of the landslide.

Fawzia Kofi, a lawmaker from Badakhshan, gave a higher death toll for the tragedy, saying that 40 villagers were killed.

Villagers had dug a 60-metre-deep shaft in a river bed to search for gold. They were inside when the walls fell in.

“The people were using an excavator to dig a big hole in the river when it collapsed, trapping dozens of workers,” governor Raghi said.

It was not clear why the shaft collapsed, but the provincial governor’s spokesman Nazari said the miners were not professionals.

“The villagers have been involved in this business for decades with no government control over them,” Nazari said.

“We have sent a rescue team to the area, but villagers have already started removing bodies from the site.”

Defence ministry helicopters have been dispatched to deliver cash to the families of the victims and airlift the wounded to hospitals, said Hashmat Bahaduri, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Authority.

Bahaduri confirmed the casualty toll, but warned the figures could change.

Families of the wounded will receive 10,000 afghanis (about $130) in compensation, while those of the dead will get 50,000 afghanis, he said.

Badakhshan is a remote, mountainous province in Afghan­istan bordering Tajikistan, China and Pakistan.

Afghanistan is a mountainous, land-locked nation that has huge, largely untouched reserves of copper, iron ore, chromite, mercury, zinc, gems, including rubies and emeralds, as well as gold and silver.

Mines are scattered across different provinces of the country, but still the government has not been able to achieve investments in this important sector or establish a thriving extraction industry.

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2019