t 28, Umar Ezat had already spent several years working in the coal mines. On July 30, he arrived at Abai Mines in Sorange, on the outskirts of Quetta, for his afternoon shift. His 19-year-old brother, Rafiqullah, was working alongside him.

The brothers came from Mian Kalay, a remote village in Shangla. Umar worked on the surface, operating the mine hoist, locally known as the alich, which lowered and raised the lift. Rafiqullah worked underground.

“This is your last day at work. I will send you home tomorrow,” Umar told Rafiqullah as he stepped into the lift. The journey home to Shangla would take 48 hours on a special bus for miners leaving Quetta.

Umar operated the alich, lowering his brother hundreds of feet into the mine. He did not know that he was sending Rafiqullah underground for the last time.

Rafiqullah was among the 34 miners killed when the mine collapsed following a methane gas explosion that day. Twenty-eight of then were from Shangla district.

Mine tragedies are all too familiar to Shangla’s residents. According to the Shangla Coal Mine Workers’ Association, 70 per cent of the men in the district work as colliers, most of them aged between 15 and 35. They risk their lives to support their families.

In Shangla, coal mining has claimed three generations of the community. Some of the workers died in mine accidents, others from pulmonary diseases caused by years of inhaling coal dust and toxic gases.

The Sorange tragedy was not unique. Among the dead were three brothers and several pairs of brothers and cousins. “After our father died in 2017 from a pulmonary disease he had developed while working in a coal mine, we had no choice but to work in the mines ourselves,” Umar tells The News on Sunday.

On the day of the mine accident, Umar says, he was on the surface, operating the hoist, while his brother and some other workers were underground. There were 12 men in the mine, including their cousin. “A few hours later, we learnt that there had been an accident underground. My cousin informed me about it and tried to console me. Later, I was told that my brother had died,” Umar says.

Rafiqullah’s wedding had taken place 15 days earlier. “Thursday was supposed to be his last day at the mine. I was going to send him home the next day,” Umar says.

Rafiqullah had never seen his wife. In keeping with local custom, the wedding had taken place in the groom’s absence.

Umar comes from a family of coal miners. About a dozen of his brothers and cousins currently work in the mines. Another 15-16 close relatives among his grandfather’s descendants have entered the profession.

Umar studied for a BA at Alpuri College but had to discontinue his education because of poverty and the need to support his family. Rafiqullah, too, had been at a college. The brothers wanted a better life, Umar says, but poverty left them few choices.

The losses in Mian Kalay extend across several connected families. Ayazuddin, 20, and Fakhruddin, 29, were brothers. Their cousins Roman Saeed, 19, and Umar Saleem, 28, also died in the accident. Their coffins arrived in Mian Kalay on the evening of July 31.

Ayazuddin and Fakhruddin’s father died in 2014 after years of pulmonary disease. Umar Saleem had also lost his father to mining; he had worked in the mines throughout his life and was suffering from the black lung disease. Roman Saeed’s father died in 2016 in a mine accident in Quetta.

Roman was nine when his father died, leaving three children in financial hardship. Local philanthropists helped support the family. As the eldest brother, he had assumed responsibility for supporting his family and joined the company where his father had died.

Roman is survived by his wife and two daughters. One of them is a year old; the other was born six days before he died. He never saw her. His mother, Tasleem Bibi, says, “I have nothing left now. There is no one to feed my two granddaughters and my two children.”

Najeebullah and Naeemullah, brothers, also died in the explosion, along with their cousins Wadoodullah and Zakirullah. Their father, Muhammad Saleem, had died in a mine accident in 2009. Zakirullah’s father, Mu’tabar, was killed in another mine accident in 2003. Wadoodullah’s father, Mu’amber, died of pneumoconiosis in 2017 after years of working in the mines.

Their grandfather, Abdul Nazar, had also died in a mine accident. Of his four sons, three were killed in similar accidents, while the fourth died of the black lung disease.

Gul Farooz lost three sons, Sardar Ali, Amjad Ali and Rehmatullah, in mine accidents. All three were aged between 16 and 25. He also lost his brother, Shen Gul, in a mining incident. Their father, Gul Saeed Khan, died in a Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation mine in Quetta in 2007. Gul Farooz had six sons. Three are now dead; the other three are all under 13.

Fazal Ikhtiar, a resident and close relative of the deceased miners, says Mian Kalay has lost elderly men, young adults and now teenagers to coal mines. “The densely populated village is now full of orphans and widows. The people have no option except to work as colliers to support their families,” he says.

“You may have noticed that people were unable to go close to the bodies because of the smell. They had decomposed during the 48-hour journey from Balochistan. The bodies were transported on the roofs of vans,” Ikhtiar says.

Relatives complained about the condition of the bodies. They blamed the Balochistan and federal governments for failing to arrange air transport. Abu Sufyan, 19, was the eldest brother in his family and its sole breadwinner. His father suffers from a mental illness.

A week after his death, his secondary school certificate (SSC) result was announced. Taking the examination at Alpuri through the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Swat, he had scored 865 marks out of 1,100.

At Sufyan’s home in Bagh Amlok, his brother Abu Saeed recalls that he and his sister had spoken to Sufyan shortly before his death. He remembers his brother as caring and thoughful person. “We are now left with two brothers and a sister. He was the only one earning and feeding us,” he says.

Abid Yaar, president of the Shangla chapter of the Pakistan Mines Workers’ Federation, says a lack of proper training and enforcement of safety regulations is one of the mining sector’s biggest problems and a major factor in such tragedies.

He says mine workers need training and that clear rules must be established and strictly enforced for their safety. Those who violate safety regulations should face penalties. “Mine managers sometimes ignore safety rules meant to protect the workers. Mine managers should be appointed by the government and not mine owners. They should work independently,” he says.

Yaar says that “fake inspectors” are another problem H calls for a scrutiny and legal action against those involved in malpractice. He says the federation has repeatedly highlighted continued operation of mines that have been declared dangerous. He says a “contractor mafia” is behind the practice. He says young migrant workers are recruited for hazardous mines.

Residents of rural Shangla are also calling for employment opportunities and investment in local development so that young men do not have to leave home to work in hazardous mines. Many say tourism could provide an alternative livelihood in Shangla.

They are calling for changes to mining policies, the closure of illegal and hazardous mines and the operation of mines in line with prescribed standard operating procedures. Their specific demands include stricter safety measures, such as multiple emergency exits. They point to coal mines in Hyderabad, Sindh, where some mines have more than two exits, and want similar arrangements elsewhere in the country.

They also want a ban on more than one brother working in the same mine during a single shift, along with the mandatory use and enforcement of protective safety gear. The issue was also raised in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, where Shangla MPA Abdul Munim highlighted these concerns and called for a comprehensive policy to protect mine workers.

Following the discussion, Speaker Babar Saleem Swati asked Mines and Minerals Minister Arif Ahmadzai to start working on a policy for mine-work safety, implement it in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and share it with Balochistan and other provinces for possible adoption.

Meanwhile, the Balochistan government has ordered an inquiry into the Sorang coal mine disaster.

For many Shangla families, the mines represent both the risk of premature death and a livelihood. They have buried their fathers, brothers and sons. Yet once the mourning is over and the money runs out, many will go back.

The writer covers human rights, climate change and governance. He can be reached at @umar_shangla1.