PICTURE: SOCIAL MEDIA
QUETTA: Over 40,000 coalmine workers have left their workplaces in different parts of Balochistan refusing to continue working due to lack of security.
The workers said that they felt insecure and their lives were at danger after gunmen stormed a coalmine in Duki district and shot dead 21 laborers and injured seven others on October 11 this year.
The coalminers said that they had demanded that the government should provide them security but after the passage of over a week there was no surety. The laborers then left the mines across Balochistan and went to their villages in different parts of the country.
An association of the coalminers said that there were about 50,000 non-locals coalminers in Balochistan. Coal from Balochistan is supplied to different parts of the province as well as other areas of Pakistan including Sindh and Punjab.
The association also said that the government had announced a compensation of Rs1.5 million for the heirs of the 21 workers killed by the terrorists but so far payment has not been made.
On October 11, unknown armed people carried out the attack on the coalmine owned by Khair Ullah, the district council chairman of Dukki. The attackers used hand grenades and shot dead 21 workers and injured seven others.
The owner of the coalmine said that the attackers also burnt down at least 10 machines used by the laborers.
It may be mentioned here that laborers from Punjab have been targetted by unknown people in Balochistan in the recent years. The latest incident shows that the attackers have targeted workers from Balochistan.
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