QUETTA: Rescue teams in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province have retrieved four bodies from a coal mine following a methane gas explosion a day earlier in the Sanjdi coal field, about 40 kilometers from Quetta, which left a dozen miners trapped inside the mine.
According to a senior official of the provincial mining department overseeing the rescue work, the search for the other miners is still ongoing, though he maintained the chances of finding anyone alive were almost negligible.
Rescue teams from the mining department and the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) have been working for the last 19 hours with heavy machinery.
“We have recovered four bodies after nearly 24 hours of the incident,” Abdul Ghani, Chief Inspector Mines Balochistan, told Arab News. “The workers were digging coal 4,000 feet inside the mine, and we have recovered the bodies at 3,000 feet. The search for other workers is still underway.”
Responding to a question, he said the entire mine had caved in due to the intensity of the explosion.
“An excavator from Quetta reached the site at midnight, and we succeeded in opening the mouth of the mine this morning,” he said.
“The mining department will conduct a thorough investigation to assess what kind of safety measures were put in place by the private mine owners,” he added.
Many coal mines in the province are operated by private companies, often under lease agreements with the government.
Ghani said that 11 of the miners were from Shangla, a town in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while one was a resident of Balochistan.
Mines in Balochistan are known for hazardous working conditions and poor safety standards, where deadly incidents are not uncommon.
According to the provincial mining department, 82 coal miners working on different projects were killed in Balochistan last year in 46 reported mining accidents.
Four bodies recovered from coal mine in Pakistan’s southwest after deadly methane explosion
https://arab.news/pxtcp
Four bodies recovered from coal mine in Pakistan’s southwest after deadly methane explosion
- Twelve coalminers were trapped after the explosion on Thursday, with little chances of finding anyone alive
- Mines in Balochistan are known for hazardous working conditions, where such accidents are not uncommon
Italy to grant 10,500 work visas, waive entry requirement for Pakistani diplomats — ministry
- Interior minister meets Italian counterpart to review measures preventing illegal immigration
- Pakistan says it achieved a 47 percent drop in illegal immigration to European states in 2025
KARACHI: Italy has announced to grant 10,500 visas to Pakistani nationals to promote legal migration and exempt diplomatic passport holders from visa requirements, Pakistan’s interior ministry said on Wednesday.
The development took place during a meeting between Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and his Italian counterpart Matteo Piantedosi to review internal security relations and measures to prevent illegal immigration.
Pakistan intensified action against illegal migration in 2023 after hundreds of migrants, including many Pakistanis, drowned when an overcrowded vessel sank off the Greek town of Pylos, making it one of the deadliest boat disasters in the Mediterranean.
Authorities continue to target smuggling networks sending citizens abroad through dangerous routes, following heightened scrutiny at airports and a series of arrests involving forged documents.
“10,500 work visas will be issued for Pakistan’s skilled labor force to promote legal migration,” Piantedosi was quoted as saying by the ministry in its statement. “On the demand of Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Pakistani diplomatic passport holders will be exempted from Italian visas.”
The ministry said the discussions also focused on strengthening cooperation to more effectively combat drug trafficking, human smuggling and militancy.
It quoted Naqvi as saying that strict airport and sea borders surveillance had helped reduce illegal immigration.
“The achievements of Pakistani institutions in preventing human trafficking and drugs are commendable,” the ministry quoted Piantedosi as saying. “We will increase mutual cooperation to promote legal migration.”
Pakistan said last year it had achieved a 47 percent drop in illegal immigration to Europe in 2025, with more than 1,700 human smugglers arrested as part of an expanded nationwide crackdown.
The country also announced in December plans to roll out an artificial intelligence-based immigration screening system in Islamabad to detect forged travel documents and prevent illegal departures.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency released a list of more than 100 of the country’s “most wanted” human smugglers in September while identifying major hubs of trafficking activity in the country.
