PAKISTAN MINE EXPLOSIONS KILL 21

Pakistan mine explosions kill 21

      Officials said the mine was declared dangerous two weeks ago  A series of methane gas explosions at a mine in Pakistan's Balochistan province have killed at least 21 workers, officials say. Rescue workers are trying to reach about 30 other miners who are trapped.  The mine, near the provincial capital, Quetta, was declared dangerous two weeks ago but those warnings were ignored, reports said.  Balochistan is rich in minerals but its mines have a poor safety record. "We are trying our best to rescue as many workers as we can, but the chance of finding survivors is bleak now," mine inspector Iftikhar Ahmed told the Associated Press news agency. Rescue workers recovered 10 bodies on Sunday - the victims died of suffocation. "They had severe burns, which means that the blasts also caused a fire," Mohammad Iftikhar, provincial chief inspector of mines, told AFP news agency.

'Poisonous gases'  Some reports said the rescue operation was being hampered by the poisonous fumes coming out of the mine and one rescue worker lost consciousness on Sunday as a result of this. Poor ventilation had led to the accumulation of poisonous gases."They are removing debris and are trying to clear the way to move forward but we are not able to move forward," Balochistan's home secretary Akbar Hussain Durrani said. The mine in the remote Sorange district is owned by the state-run Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation, but it was leased to a contractor. Officials promised action against those responsible for ignoring warnings to stop mining.  Balochistan has been at the centre of a decade-long insurgency with with Baloch nationalists demanding more jobs and royalties from the region's natural resources.( From BBC news)

 Prof. John Kurakar