KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The bodies of six workers from Afghanistan who died in a coal mine explosion in Tajikistan were returned home for burial, local sources said, marking the second deadly mining incident involving Afghan workers in the country this year.
The victims, all young men, were reportedly killed on Monday, November 3, when an explosion ripped through a tunnel in a coal mine in the Ayni district of Tajikistan’s northern Sughd province. All six were inside the tunnel at the time of the blast.
Sources said five of the victims were from the Hazara-populated Daykundi province in central Afghanistan, and one was from Bamyan province. They have been identified as Bakhtyar Rizaie, Reza Akbari, Mohammad Yar Hussaini, Sayed Kazim Hussaini, Hassan Rizaie, and Azizullah Azizi. All were educated men, and Bakhtyar Rizaie had previously served as the legal director of Ashtarlai district in Daykundi.
The cause of the explosion has not been confirmed. Sources cited negligence by contractors who bring workers from Afghanistan to Tajikistan, saying they are forced into deep tunnels despite serious safety risks and threatened with dismissal or deportation if they raise concerns. Workers were also reportedly warned not to speak to the media about conditions inside the mines.
Officials in Tajikistan and Taliban authorities in Kabul have not commented on the incident.
In May, eight workers from Afghanistan, all from Daykundi, were killed in a similar incident in the same district.
Hundreds of citizens from Afghanistan are employed in coal mines across Tajikistan. With limited employment opportunities at home, many young people from Afghanistan migrate to neighboring countries in search of work, often taking high-risk jobs in mining and other labor-intensive sectors. Fatal incidents involving workers from Afghanistan have also been recorded in Iran and Pakistan in recent years.
