Last Tuesday (April 20), eight coalminers suffered serious burn injuries inside a coalmine in the Duki district of Balochistan when the portion of the mine collapsed, causing the release of poisonous methane gas. These coalminers were trapped inside the mine and later rescued. In March, seven coalminers were burnt to death in a huge fire triggered by a methane gas blast inside a coalmine in the Harnai district. Two rescuers had also lost their lives. In another incident that too occurred in March, six workers died in the Marwar coalfields in the Machh area, following an explosion caused by toxic methane gas. In 2020, Balochistan reported 72 accidents in coalmines, that claimed the lives of at least 102 coalmine workers and caused serious injuries to many others. In January 2019, the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) prepared a report titled ‘Death in Mines (A Report on Coal Mines in Balochistan)’, highlighting the ineffectiveness of the relevant departments primarily due to political pressures, and underscoring the need to curb or minimise the accidents on priority. A set of recommendations were made to the provincial government to cancel the licences of those mine owners where fatal accidents occurred to ensure that adequate compensation was paid to families of victims, and to strictly impose penalties for not ensuring health and safety standards. The report also recommended that working conditions in coalmines be improved, the labour contract system be abolished, and the registration of workers be made mandatory.
It is unfortunate that these recommendations were never considered by the Balochistan government. The Ministry of Human Rights is requested to implement the report’s recommendations to save human lives.
Hussain Siddiqui
Islamabad