MUZAFFARABAD: Rescue officials recovered the bodies of five miners, including two brothers, who were trapped in a coalmine near here on Sunday in an incident that spotlighted lack of proper precautionary measures in mining.

The police arrested the leaseholder and his five partners after registering a criminal case against them under the instruction of Deputy Commissioner Masoodur Rehman.

The mine, where the tragic incident occurred, lies in Seri Darra village, towards the east of Muzaffarabad, at an hour-long drive through a steep hilly road.

Around seven miners were busy digging coal some 800 feet inside the tunnel when a gas explosion caused the collapsing of mine stopes on Sunday afternoon.

Leaseholder, five partners arrested after registration of criminal case against them

Two of them, who were towards the entrance of the tunnel, managed to rush outside with minor wounds but the others were buried under the earth.

According to Rashid Habib Masoodi, the SHO City Police Station, the incident occurred at about 2pm on Sunday “but neither did the leaseholder or his partners initiate a rescue operation on their own nor did they inform the administration instantly.”

The police came to know about the incident at about 7:15pm following which rescuers were rushed to the place to recover the trapped workers, he added.

Mr Rehman and SSP Raja Akmal also reached the spot and supervised the rescue operation until the recovery of the last body at about 4:45am on Monday.

“Had the information been received on time the miners could definitely have been saved,” he claimed.

He said the accused had not enforced any safety measures to save the lives of the workers engaged in a highly risky activity.

The deceased were identified as Nosherwan and his brother Bakht Munir, Bahadar Khan and Gulzeb from Gulbar village and Aslam Khan from Amankot village of Swat valley. The injured miners were Bakhti Rohan, a sibling of the two deceased brothers, and Akbar Ali. All the victims were aged between 25 and 35 years.

The lease was in the name of Haji Faridoon Awan, a resident of Haripur (KP), while his partners included Jawad Muzaffar from Muzaffarabad, Saifullah and Mohammad Razzaq from Shangla, Shah Faisal from Charssada and Fazle Rahim from Swat.

DC Rehman told Dawn that the mine had been sealed until the implementation of all safety standards. He said he had also ordered the authorities concerned to conduct a ‘security audit’ of all mines within his jurisdiction.

Published in Dawn, August 8th, 2017