Yet another labourer killed at Sargodha’s stone crushing site

SARGODHA (Monitoring Desk): Yet another labourer lost his life while working at a stone crushing site on Saturday, taking the death toll due to similar incidents to 16 over a span of 23 days.

According to rescue sources, 33-year-old Gulzar was working, along with other labourers, up a hill at the stone crushing site in 120 South when a boulder took him down. The labourer died on the spot. He was a resident of Sargodha’s village 48 South.

A similar incident took place on September 27 that killed six on-duty labourers on the spot.

The market where the incident took place in said to be the largest stone crushing site of Punjab, where building material of various sorts is prepared.

The deaths usually take place when labourers climb the hills to place explosive material for blasting. They rush down to hide in a safe spot — usually a nearby cave — within a certain time period. But miscalculation on the direction of falling rocks claims their lives.

Although offices of the mines, social welfare and security departments are present in Sargodha, they have not yet taken any step to put in place safety measures for the labourers, around 20,000 of which work at the stone crushing site daily.

It is also said that families of over 60 labourers — who died in similar incidents earlier — have not yet got money under their death claims.