PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi announced on Saturday that all gold mining leases in the province are cancelled and mining activity is suspended with immediate effect, three days after an ambush in Kohat killed police personnel returning from an operation against illegal gold mining.
Kundi made the announcement at a press conference in Peshawar, where he was joined by the provincial adviser for mines and minerals, the chief secretary and the provincial police chief, Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed, according to reports by the DNA news agency, The News and TechJuice. He directed leaseholders and contractors to remove their heavy machinery from the mining areas within a week.
The governor also announced a task force named after DSP Haider Zaman, the officer killed in the Kohat attack, and said approval for it has been granted. A judicial commission will investigate illegal gold mining and the Kohat incident, he said, and action will be taken against anyone found involved.
Kundi gave his own account of the scale of the illegal trade. He said mining in Kohat was under way in two blocks, known as C and D, using 8,350 tractors and tractor trolleys, 1,730 heavy dumpers and large numbers of labourers, and that about 90 kilograms of gold were being extracted each month. A 10-year lease covering gold worth about Rs4.2 billion a month had been granted for just Rs4.92 billion, he said. These figures are the governor’s and have not been independently audited.
He alleged that militants linked to Fitna al-Khawarij, the name Pakistani officials use for the TTP, attacked the police party as it returned from the operation, that mining operators paid the militants extortion money in return for protection, and that 12 political figures had provided political backing for the mining.
The Pakistani Taliban, the TTP, claimed responsibility for the ambush in a statement reported by The Associated Press and AFP. The claim has not been independently verified.
Police say 10 officers were killed in the attack and 18 attackers were killed in the fight that followed. Rescue 1122 put the police toll at 11 killed and 12 injured. The two official counts have not been reconciled. Read our full report on the Kohat ambush.
As of Saturday evening, no official notification cancelling the leases had been published, so the move rests for now on the governor’s announcement. Zark News is following the story and will update it when the formal order appears.
