PESHAWAR: The funeral prayer of 16 coal miners, which remains were recovered a day earlier from a mass grave in Toor Chapper, Darra Adam town, was offered at district headquarter Alpuri Shangla, district on Saturday.
At least 34 coalminers had gone missing in KP’s Shangla district in September 2011 after at least two dozen militants raided the base camp of laborers who mostly hailed from Swat, Kohistan and Shangla areas of Malakand Division.
Shangla Mine Workers Association (SAMWA), which is an organization working for miners’ rights contributed to rescuing activities. According to SAMWA President Abid Yar Khan, the provincial government gave them support by involving the rescue 1122 team and other required facilitation.
The funeral was attended by relatives of the deceased, locals of the area and the provincial Minister Shokat Yousafzai, Minister for Mines Arif Ahmad Zai and PML -N Provincial President Ameer Muqam also attended the prayers.
Later, the bodies of coal miners were dispatched in ambulances to their villages in different parts of the district.
Meanwhile, Awami National Party has condemned the killing of 16 coal miners and described the incident as a failure of the state to ensure protection to lives and properties of the citizens in the country.
The coal miners belonging to Shangla district had been kidnapped in 2011. The remains of the workers were recovered from a mass grave in the mountains of Tor Chapper area of Darra Adam khel on April 9.
The ANP provincial president Aimal Wali Khan in a statement here on Saturday said that Pakhtuns suffered the most due to the menace of militancy. He said it was the duty of the state to ensure protection to lives, properties and their basic rights of the citizens. Aimal Wali said it needed explanation about the identification of the armed men who were responsible for kidnapping and killing of the innocent people in the daylight. He said it was extremely lamentable that people were kidnapped and then their bodies were recovered.
Are the people so powerful that the state is also unable to hit them hard,” he posed a question and said that the state had to fulfill its prime responsibility.
He asked for an end to the killing of Pakhtuns. Referring to the recovery of the coal miners after about one decade, he said Pakhtuns were very unfortunate that faced such tragic incidents.
Expressing his sympathies with the victims’ families, the ANP leader said this incident had saddened the entire Pakhtuns. He said his party would continue to raise voice against such acts of barbarism at all available forums.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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