Daily Times

A powerful gas explosion in a coalmine left nine coalminers dead and three others wounded in Darra Adam Khel, a town in FR Kohat area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on Wednesday, locals and officials said.

According to sources, gas produced from the coals filled the mine leading to an explosion which resulted in the collapse of a part of the mine. Eleven miners were trapped thousands of feet underground when the mine caved in. Rescuers have recovered the bodies of nine of the trapped miners, while efforts are under way to rescue the remaining two miners still trapped inside the coal mine, the sources added.

According to the Deputy Commissioner of Kohat Khalid Illyas, the incident occurred at 8am.The deputy commissioner said that the three injured miners who were rescued have been shifted to the hospital for medical treatment.

Incidents like yesterday’s incident are not an anomaly for miners who continue to work under such hazardous situations by putting their lives at stake. It should be mentioned here that earlier this year, six miners suffocated to death when a coal mine in Kala Khel area, situated on the border of FR Kohat and FR Peshawar overfilled with gas. Having no safety equipment became the reason behind miners’ death. In another incident in May this year, an explosion in a coalmine left 23 workers dead in Balochistan. That mine caved in after the miners used dynamite during an excavation in Sinjidi, 45 kilometers east of Balochistan.

Published in Daily Times, September 13^th 2018.