DADU: Tragedy struck the Lakhra coalfields of Jamshoro on Thursday when the roof of a mine suddenly caved in during routine coal-cutting work, trapping two labourers deep inside the dark shafts.

Fellow miners rushed to help and managed to pull both men out. But Ghulam Qadir, 34, died on the spot while Murad Ali, 29, was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition. The accident sent shockwaves through the Lakhra mining community, where many said such disasters were only a matter of time.

Labourers working in the nearby tunnels said they had repeatedly warned about the cracks developing in the ceiling. Shahid Rehman, who was just steps away when the roof fell, said: “We kept telling them the ceiling was weak, but nobody listened. In

the last six months alone, more than three dozen of our fellow miners have died, and nearly 200 have been injured. Today it was Ghulam. Tomorrow it could be me or anyone else.”

Naseer Ahmed, one of the miners who helped with the rescue, described the chaos underground. “When the roof collapsed, the whole tunnel shook. Dust covered everything — we couldn’t see, we couldn’t breathe. We dug them out with our bare hands because we had no proper equipment. Every month someone dies here. We don’t need officials to tell us the numbers — we see it with our own eyes.”

For miners, the past six months have been the deadliest they can remember. Fida Karim, with 11 years of experience in Lakhra, said: “More than two dozen miners gone, nearly one hundred injured.

“These are the numbers we talk about every day while eating lunch inside the mine. We bury our brothers and then go right back down because we have no other choice. If we stop working, our families will starve.”

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2025