KOHAT, July 11: The political administration of Frontier Region of Kohat has said that it was not sure whether the 18 coal miners kidnapped a month ago were alive or not.

In two separate reports submitted to the federal and provincial governments the administration expressed its inability to recover the coal miners, saying the victims were not present in Darra Adamkhel.

“The administration has submitted reports to the federal and provincial governments in this regard and blamed Taliban for abduction of coal miners,” sources said here on Monday.

The political administration was asked to submit reports to provincial and federal governments about the fate of coal miners, who were kidnapped from Akhorwal area of Darra Adamkhel on June 11.

According to the reports, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan was responsible for the incident. But the political administration reported that the victims were not present in Darra Adamkhel or in any other part of the frontier region, sources added.

“Certainly Taliban have kidnapped the miners, who belong to different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But they have not yet made any kind of demand. We don't know about the motive behind the kidnapping. We also don't know whether the kidnapped miners are alive or not,” an official said.

Sources said that about 100 armed Taliban had attacked the mines. Those miners, who possessed arms to guard the mines, managed to escape while battling with the attackers but 18 of their colleagues were whisked away towards Khyber Agency.

The tribal administration carried out a search operation in Darra Adamkhel on the orders of the government and reported that the victims were not present in FR Kohat.

“The administration and security forces present in the area came to know about the incident the next day but by then the miners had been taken to some unknown place.”—Correspondent