SHANGLA: The family members of miners, who were abducted and then killed at Kalakhel area of Darra Adamkhel in 2011, have demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to take special measures for safety of Shangla coal miners working at mines in the tribal regions.

They claimed that miners were being targeted in local inter-tribe battles.

According to members of the affected families, a large number of coal miners from Shangla working at the mines in tribal regions of Kohat and other southern districts are unsafe.

Abdul Hanif, uncle of a deceased miner from Ranyal, recalled that five young men of his family had gone for mining work to Kalakhel in 2011 and just two days later they disappeared.

“The mine was disputed and the mine manger of Kalakhel tribe did not tell the workers and sent them inside the mine and the very next day they were taken away by the opponent local group,” he claimed.

Affected families say mineworkers are being targeted over inter-tribe feuds

He added the miners were killed in 2012 and buried in a mass grave.

Wazir Rehman, father of three deceased miners, told this correspondent that he had 10 children of which four were boys and now only the younger one was left.

“My three sons between 18 and 21 years of ages, brother and nephew had gone happily for work and were abducted the very next day. We waited for them for a decade and at the end we received their remains,” he said.

He said they wanted justice and safety of other miners working in the tribal areas. He said that last year seven miners were abducted from a mine and then released.

Noor Rehman, a family member of a deceased collier, said the affected families had spent over Rs5 million on searching their loved ones.

“We also sought help from the preachers’ groups going to Darra Adamkhel to search the miners and they met a nomad who had knowledge of the mass grave,” he said.

He stated that the nomad told them that they had found all the 16 bodies in the area lying on the ground in 2012 and buried them then.

He claimed that when the preachers dug up the grave they identified two of the miners from clothes.

Noor Rehman said afterwards they informed the political leaders and coalmine workers association who made it possible to dug up the mass grave and shift remains of the miners to Shangla.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2021