QUETTA: Two workers were killed after a trolley full of coal fell on them when they were working inside a coalmine in Duki tehsil of Loralai district on Sunday.

Sources said that the victims, identified as Niaz Muhammad and Suleman, belonged to Afghanistan. Their bodies will be sent to their native villages in Afghanistan after completion of medico-legal formalities.

Mines in Balochistan are notorious for their poor safety standards. As many as 19 miners have so far lost their lives in incidents in Duki this month.

The medical superintendent of Duki’s Civil Hospital, Jauhar Khan, said that his hospital received four to six cases of injured miners every day. He said a hospital for miners in the area had been closed, adding that his hospital was short of doctors and was under tremendous burden.

Abdul Majeed Shah, a member of the Pakistan Labour Federation, said that Duki mines had become a deathtrap for miners. “Accidents occur almost every day. Nineteen people have died in 27 days,” he added.

A representative of the miners’ union said that lack of safety precautions at mines in Duki caused incidents on a daily basis.

On Jan 21, six miners were killed after an explosion inside a coalmine in Duki.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2019