QUETTA: Chief Mine Inspector Abdul Ghani reported on Monday that at least 11 coal workers in the Sanjdi district of Balochistan perished from asphyxia.
He reported that a deadly gas leak in the coal mine claimed the lives of the colliers, who were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat Valley.
According to the official, the miners’ bodies have been found and are being returned to their homes.
He said that the impacted coal mine has been sealed.
Mohsin Naqvi, the interior minister, expressed his sadness over the deaths of the eleven miners and sent his condolences to their families.
“The tragic incident has left us deeply saddened by the loss of precious human lives,” the interior ministry was cited by an official as saying.
Ten people were trapped approximately 800 feet (244 meters) below the surface of a private coal pit in the mining region of Khost, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Quetta, when an explosion rocked the pit in March of this year, killing twelve miners and saving eight others.
Twenty miners were inside the mine overnight when a methane gas explosion occurred, according to the province’s chief mine inspector.
The western parts of Pakistan that border Afghanistan have coal resources, and mine mishaps frequently occur, mostly as a result of methane buildups.
