PRESS RELEASE
Orakzai (HANGU) At least 10 laborers were killed and 30 were serious injured in Al-Hussaini Coal Mine Khyber Pakhtoonkhawa (Pakistan).
All Pakistan Labour Federation (APLF) and Balochistan Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) Condem the death of massive mine workers and demand judicial inquiry (APLF).
The mine is located in Lower Orakzai area Kyber Pakhtoonkhaw Province (Pakistan) Al-Hussaini Coal Mine.
According to All Pakistn Labour Federation (APLF)Khyber Pakhtoon Khawa Region, and Balochistan Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU); 65 laborers were inside the mine when it collapsed due to torrential rains. Mr. Sultan Muhammad Khan President APLF/BFTU speaking to media and confirmed the death of at least 10 miners in the mishap.
“thirty injured miners have also been rescued and shifted to hospitals,” he said fifteen are serious injured.
He said that all the laborers belonged to his Shangla town. “I request the federal and provincial governments to take emergency measures to rescue the laborers,” he added.
The injured have been shifted to Kalaya Hospital in Lower Orakzai Agency and DHQ hospital Kohat, where condition of some of the injured was stated to be critical.
The dead and majority of injured belong to Shangla district. In Orakzai, rescue efforts continued for a second day to collect coalmine workers trapped underneath rubble given Saturday. The cave collapsed after an blast caused by amassed gas accompanied with complicated rainfall.
Mr. Sultan Muhammad Khan President APLF said that every month, deadly incidents take place across coal mines in Pakistan. Government of Pakistan & mining authorities are responsible for carrying out weekly searches to avoid disastrous incidents. “Mine workers who are the backbone of the country are feeling unsafe and facing financial difficulties,” he said, adding that the government and owners of private coal mine companies are not providing any basic facilities or services to the workers in the field. “Hundreds of workers are losing their livelihoods because of a lack of basic facilities.”
Sultan Muhammad Khan also revealed that workers who had died in the field were paid compensation after an exceptionally long period of three years. “The mine department has failed to implement safety laws for the coal mines,” he said the following problems facing by mine workers: –
- Lack of personal safety equipment
- Absence of safety committee
- No implementation on laws of the mines
- No Proper Training for mine workers
- No Awareness programmes
- Careless attitude of the manager and inspectorate of mines
- Unawareness among the workers recording OSH
- Uncertified shot fire and exploders
- Lake of welfare facilities
- No compensation for occupational disease
- Not maintaining any regular record of accident
- Lake of safety lamp
- Absence of proper wood to sustain the mine roof
- Insecure entrances and exist of mines
- Unawareness of the workers about the pathways inside the mines
- Dust, coal dist and smoke
- Absence of fresh air
- Lack of fresh drinking water
- Lake of first aid equipment
- Unavailability of ambulance at the work place at the required time
- Absence of bathrooms and toilets
- Absence of canteen
- Lake of appropriate residential facilities
- Lack of transport facility etc.
As per international standards, miners should be properly dressed in fitting shirts and trousers leaving no space for methane to come into contact with their bodies. They should wear helmets, carry safety lamps and keep gas cylinders handy. One hardly ever sees these measures implemented in the mines of Pakistan.
All Pakistan Labour Federation (APLF) and Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) condemn the HANGU Mining Workers Death and call protest all over the world on Thursday against the unsafe working condition in Pakistan.
ABDUL HALEEM KHAN
Information Secretary
All Pakistan Labour Federation (APLF)and
Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF)
Federation Office; Hassan Plaza Flat #1 Patel Bagh, Quetta Pakistan
E-mail: [email protected]