KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – One week after eight workers from Afghanistan were killed in a coal mine explosion in Tajikistan, another worker died on Thursday in a similar incident inside a mining tunnel.
Local sources identified the victim as Mokhtar Rezai, from Shahristan district in Daykundi province, a Hazara-populated region in central Afghanistan.
Rezai died after a sudden explosion occurred while he was placing explosives to extract coal. His body was returned to Afghanistan on Friday.
He was reportedly between 30 and 35 years old and had recently begun working in the coal mines of Sughd province in Tajikistan, sources said.
Last Friday, eight workers from Afghanistan, all from Shahristan district, died in a methane gas explosion in a mine located in Aini district of Sughd province.
The workers were reportedly sent to Tajikistan by a contracting company based in Afghanistan.
High unemployment in Afghanistan pushes many, especially young men, to seek work in neighboring countries, often taking on dangerous jobs such as mining.
Similar fatal incidents involving workers from Afghanistan have been reported in Iran and Pakistan in recent years.
