JHANG: Eight people, including two brothers, died and 11 others injured, seven of them critically, when the boiler of a sugar mills exploded on Shorkot Cantonment road on Tuesday.

According to eyewitnesses, the boiler of the Kashmir Sugar Mills was being cleaned when the workers erroneously opened a valve that started emitting steam during the morning shift.

Before the leakage could be plugged, they said, the boiler exploded causing a massive blast that was heard far and away.

They said 19 workers were present in the boiler unit when the explosion occurred.

As a result of the explosion, seven people – Ishaq , Aslam (brothers), Sajjad, Ashraf, Sarfraz, Mahamand and an unidentified man – died on the spot, while Shehzad died on the way to the hospital.

Three of the critically injured –Abdul Waris, Asrar and Muhammad Ali – were shifted to the Allied Hospited, Faisalabad, while another Khalil who was also seriously injured was shifted to the Nishtar Hospital, Multan. Three others, Muhammad Ali, Faisal and Gul Raheem were shifted to the Shorkot Tehsil Headquarters Hospital.

####Seven injured critically; body formed to probe into incident

All the deceased and injured people were residents of Khumananwala and other villages located in the vicinity of the mills.

The mills administration is yet to fix the responsibility for the incident.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has constituted a high-level inquiry committee to probe into the incident.

Some residents of Khumanawala village talking to Dawn sought full compensation to the families of the deceased and the injured.

They also demanded immediate steps for safety of mills workers to avert such incidents in future. Official news agency APP, quoting Shorkot THQ hospital sources said that most of the injured were in serious condition with up to 70pc burns.

AWP: Awami Workers’ Party central secretary general Farooq Tariq expressed solidarity with the families of the workers killed in the Kashmir Sugar mills boiler explosion.

In a statement on Tuesday, he demanded that a Rs3 million be paid to the families of each deceased and Rs1 million to each injured worker.

He also demanded that the proceedings of the investigating committee formed by the chief minister be made public.

He said the lack of safety arrangements had made the sugar mills a death trap for the workers.

The Kashmir Sugar mills is owned by Mian Javed Shafi, a cousin of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2016