KOHAT – Three labourers have been killed after a mound of earth collapsed during illegal gold mining in Gumbat tehsil of Kohat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
According to Gumbat police, the incident occurred this morning in the Darra Bokach area, where a landslide buried three workers while they were attempting to extract gold. Police said the bodies were pulled from the debris and moved to a local hospital. In January, eight people were killed in a similar landslide during gold extraction in the same tehsil.
Illegal gold mining is carried out in various areas along the Indus River in Kohat. At a press conference yesterday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor said “90 kilograms of gold” was being extracted from the area every month.
He said police were attacked on Wednesday during an operation against illegal gold mining in Kohat, in which 10 policemen, including a DSP, were martyred. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police said the attack targeted a police party returning after completing the operation, and that police responded by killing 18 attackers.
Following the incident, Governor Faisal Karim Kundi announced the cancellation of all gold mining lease agreements in the province, saying no one would be allowed to mine gold from now on. He warned contractors to halt illegal mining and remove heavy machinery within a week, failing which all machinery would be confiscated.
Meanwhile, a report aired on state television this morning said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police and the district administration had carried out a large-scale operation against the illegal gold mining mafia in Nowshera and Kohat, during which all heavy machinery used in illegal mining was set on fire.
In his media talk yesterday, the governor also accused 12 politicians belonging to different political parties of involvement in illegal gold mining. Expressing concern over the plunder of the province’s resources, he said compliance with mining laws was mandatory, that checks would be tightened to stop the illegal transport of mineral resources, and that cases would be registered against those mining without leases.
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