Khyber Pakhtunkhwa suspends all gold mining activity in province
The governor said illegal mining leases are being cancelled, with machinery to be removed within a week or seized, and alleged that militants extorted mining operators.
All gold mining activity in the province will be suspended immediately, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi announced on Saturday.
At a press conference in Peshawar, Kundi said an operation against illegal mining had found that about 9 kilograms of gold was being extracted each month, and that a large share of the money was being moved to Afghanistan.
He said 12 politicians were involved in illegal mining, including a brother of Sohail Afridi, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leaders, Senator Khurram Zeeshan, former provincial minister Aftab Alam and several Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leaders.
Kundi said all gold mining leases in the province are being cancelled and that lease holders and contractors have been given one week to remove their heavy machinery from the affected areas.
He warned that machinery not removed within that week would be seized, and said magistrates had previously imposed fines of Rs30,000 while the law sets a penalty of Rs500,000, which will also be investigated.
Kundi said illegal mining operations were using 8,350 tractors, 1,730 heavy dumpers and large numbers of labourers, and that a mining block in Kohat had been leased for Rs4.92 billion.
He said militants, whom he referred to as Fitna al-Khawarij, collected protection money of up to Rs800,000 from local people and up to Rs4 million from non-local people.
Kundi said militants attacked police returning from a major operation against illegal gold mining in Kohat, killing a deputy superintendent of police and 10 police personnel, and that police killed 11 militants in response.
He said 80 percent of the money from illegal mining was being transferred to Afghanistan and used for terrorism against Pakistan, and later put the monthly gold output at up to 90 kilograms.
