RASC News Agency: Four coal miners tragically lost their lives in a catastrophic mine collapse in Dara-i-Suf Bala district of Samangan province an incident that occurred three days prior but was deliberately withheld from public knowledge by Taliban officials until it began circulating on social media platforms. According to local sources, the fatal accident took place inside a coal extraction tunnel in the village of Layla Waqoobi. The miners, who were reportedly working under unregulated and unsafe conditions, were buried beneath layers of debris after the tunnel gave way without warning. Their bodies were recovered only after the local community intervened, as no professional emergency response had been dispatched by the Taliban authorities.
The deceased workers were all residents of Ashterlai district in Daikundi province a poverty-stricken central region from which hundreds of Hazara families have migrated in search of work. Lacking job opportunities and economic security under the Taliban regime, many risk their lives daily in Afghanistan’s unregulated and hazardous mining sector. The Taliban’s provincial police spokesman, Hashmatullah Rahmani, was compelled to confirm the incident only after intense public scrutiny. He admitted that the victims’ remains had been retrieved with the help of local villagers and handed over to their families. However, his brief acknowledgment failed to explain the regime’s three-day silence or the broader structural failures that led to the tragedy.
This pattern of official silence and suppression has reignited outrage among human rights advocates and civil society groups, who say the Taliban’s de facto authorities continue to demonstrate utter disregard for the safety, dignity, and lives of Afghanistan’s working class. “This is not just a mining accident it is a political crime,” said a Kabul-based labor rights researcher, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal. “The Taliban is running extractive industries with zero transparency and zero accountability. Workers are expendable assets in their economic model.” Coal mining in northern Afghanistan has long been marred by unsafe practices, lack of professional oversight, and exploitative labor conditions. Under Taliban rule, the situation has deteriorated further. Most of the country’s mines now operate informally controlled by Taliban commanders or private contractors closely aligned with the regime. No investment is made in safety training, hazard prevention, or emergency infrastructure.
Despite frequent deadly accidents in provinces such as Baghlan, Badakhshan, and Bamiyan, the Taliban has yet to introduce any meaningful regulations to safeguard miners or standardize extraction procedures. Instead, it continues to profit from Afghanistan’s vast natural resources while ignoring the human cost. “These deaths are not accidents they are the inevitable result of systemic negligence and greed,” said a former official from Afghanistan’s pre-2021 Ministry of Mines. “There is no functioning regulatory authority. There is no safety inspectorate. And the Taliban does not allow civil society to raise alarms without punishment.”
The deliberate delay in reporting this tragedy has also reignited debate about the regime’s tight grip on media and information flow. Since seizing power, the Taliban has consistently suppressed reporting on disasters, human rights abuses, and systemic failures, allowing preventable tragedies like this one to recur unchecked. As the regime continues to exploit Afghanistan’s mineral wealth with no regard for labor rights or safety standards, experts warn that such incidents will remain tragically common and that the silence surrounding them will only deepen.
