QUETTA, Pakistan: A Pakistani official says rescue teams saved two miners and retrieved the bodies of eight others after a methane explosion trapped the 10 in a coal mine in southwestern Baluchistan province.
Imran Zarkun, a top disaster management official, says the search operation was completed on Tuesday. An investigation into the incident will follow.
The mine partially caved in more than 4,000 feet (1,220 meters) below the surface in the Degari area near the provincial capital, Quetta, following the Sunday night explosion.
The two miners rescued on Tuesday were in critical condition. On Monday, rescuers found another miner, not part of the group of 10, who had been closer to the surface when the blast occurred.
Safety standards are widely ignored in the coal-mining industry in Pakistan, leading to numerous deadly incidents.
Rescuers save 2, retrieve 8 bodies after Pakistan mine blast
Rescuers save 2, retrieve 8 bodies after Pakistan mine blast
- Search operation was completed on Tuesday
- Two miners rescued were in critical condition
Two killed in suicide blast targeting security forces in Pakistan’s northwest
- Multiple people were injured in the attack in Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
- It comes days after militants rammed explosive-laden vehicle into checkpost, killing 12 people
ISLAMABAD: Two security personnel, including an officer, were killed, while multiple others sustained injuries when a suicide blast targeted their vehicle in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a police official said.
The suicide bomber hit his explosive-laden motorbike into an armored vehicle of security forces in Sara Darga area of KP’s Bannu district, according to a local police official who requested anonymity.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), have carried out similar assaults in the region in past.
“The attack had damaged the armored vehicle, causing deaths and injuries,” he told Arab News, adding that they suspected the Pakistani Taliban to be behind the attack.
Pakistan has struggled to contain a surge in militancy in KP, which borders Afghanistan, in recent years, with militant groups, particularly the TTP, frequently targeting security forces, law enforcers and government officials in the region.
Earlier this week, Pakistani Taliban militants rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a checkpost jointly manned by security forces and law enforcement agencies in KP’s Bajaur district, killing 11 security personnel among 12 people, the Pakistani military’s media wing said.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil and India of backing militant groups for cross-border attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi deny this.
