THATTA: Four miners suffocated to death and a fifth was rescued in critical condition when a portion of a coal mine in Jhimpir caved in on Thursday.

The deceased miners were identified as Mehboob Ali Pathan, Gul Wahid Pathan, Daud and Faqir Gul — all said to be residents of Swat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Co-workers and area residents said they heard a blast-like sound and rushed to the site near the Maiting railway station. Relief and rescue work was started immediately and five miners were retrieved from under a huge pile of sand, stones and rubble, filling a vast crater, amid a hue and cry being raised by people present there, they said. The said that the coal mine was owned by Umar Nawaz Pathan.

Miners and residents of nearby villages involved in the rescue work said that two of the men taken out of the rubble had already died and the two others died some time later.

The lone survivor of the incident was rushed to a Jhimpir hospital where doctors were struggling to save his life. The Sindh chief secretary has asked the Thatta assistant commissioner to immediately submit to him a report about the incident. The AC visited the site, sealed the coal mine and started collecting facts.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2021