MITHI: Four villagers died when the well they were digging caved in and they were buried alive under the mud in Rarrkiyo village near Nagarparkar town on Saturday.

The villagers, labourers by profession, were working deep inside the well when it caved in all of a sudden.

The deceased were identified as Jalo, Wank Jee, Maan Singh and Karmo.

The victims were taken out from the well with the help of heavy machinery before they were transported to the Nagarparkar Taluka Hospital. The doctors who examined them pronounced them dead on arrival.

Tharparkar Deputy Commissioner Dr Shahzad Tahir Thaheem while speaking to local reporters said that the incident took place at around 10.30am and the rescue work had to be stopped for some time due to a heated argument between area residents and the contractor who had hired the labourers.

The victims’ relatives strongly condemned the local administration for the delay in starting the rescue work. Otherwise, they claimed, the victims might have survived.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2020