KP governor bans gold mining, cancels all leases after Kohat attack

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi announced a province-wide ban on gold mining and the cancellation of all mining leases on Saturday, days after 10 police personnel were killed in Kohat district as they returned from an operation against illegal gold mining.

Speaking at a press conference in Peshawar, the governor said the anti-mining operation was launched after governor's rule was imposed in the province. He was accompanied by the provincial adviser for mines and minerals, the chief secretary and Inspector General of Police Zulfiqar Hameed, Geo News reported.

Leaseholders and contractors were told to remove heavy machinery from the affected areas within one week. Machinery left in place after that will be seized. Kundi said fines would no longer be limited to the Rs25,000 or Rs30,000 imposed by magistrates but could reach Rs2 million under the law, TechJuice reported. Authorities were also investigating why penalties were not imposed as the law requires, he said.

The governor said the police party was attacked by Fitna al-Khawarij while returning from a successful operation. Illegal miners paid extortion money to militants and received protection in return, he said, and that link led to the deaths of the police personnel. "How long will we continue to make sacrifices? This will no longer be allowed," he said.

He said Kohat has two mineral blocks, C and D. According to Geo News, he said 8,350 tractors with tractor-trolleys and 1,730 heavy dumpers were being used in illegal mining there, that about 90 kilogrammes of gold were extracted every month, and that the gold was worth Rs4.2 billion a month. TechJuice reported that he put the value of illegal mining at Rs4.92 billion a month and said 80 per cent of the money went to Afghanistan and was used to finance terrorism against Pakistan. Geo News reported that he said a 10-year lease on one block, where gold worth about Rs4.2 billion a month is extracted, had been granted for Rs4.92 billion.

Geo News reported that Kundi named 12 political figures he said had provided political backing in connection with the Kohat incident, among them former provincial minister Aftab Alam, Shehryar Afridi, Khurram Zeeshan, Sajid Iqbal and Naveed, a brother of a former chief minister. He said no first information reports had been registered against those he named. Politicians or members of other institutions found involved in illegal mining would be punished under the law, he said.

Kundi announced a task force named after martyred DSP Haidar Zaman, whose formation he said had been approved, and a judicial commission to investigate illegal gold mining and the Kohat incident, Geo News reported. An exemplary operation would be launched against the attackers and their facilitators, he said.

He said maintaining peace was the government's foremost priority and that the province would not allow anyone to plunder its resources. Referring to the two-day Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum 2026 held in Islamabad this week, he said delegations from other countries had taken part and the provincial government intended to invite international investors into mining and minerals.