Indian Navy struggles to retrieve “suspicious object” from flooded Coal Mine
Navy has saved One person from the mine, Four are still suspected to be trapped inside
Shillong, Jun 17 (UNI) The Indian Navy is struggling to retrieve a “suspicious object” from a flooded 500 ft deep coal pit, where four more coal miners are still trapped inside the pit since May 30, in Meghalaya’s East Jaintia Hills district.
Of the five trapped miners, deep divers of the Indian Navy on Wednesday had retrieved a highly decomposed body of an unidentified person from the 500-feet flooded
coal pit with the help of ROV SONAR.
“They (Navy) tried their best to retrieve the “suspicious object” but failed to do so as the “suspicious object” was trapped in the debris inside the main shaft of the coal pit,” a rescue official said.
“The divers returned back to the ground at around 2:45 p.m and will resume the rescue operation on Friday,” he said.
A combined team of the Indian Navy and National and State Disaster Response Force besides Fire and Emergency Services have been pressed into service to evacuate the trapped miners.
The five migrant miners, including four from Assam and one from Tripura, have been trapped inside a 500-foot flooded coal mine since May 30 at Umpleng area, about 100 Km from the State capital Shillong.
The trapped miners had been identified as Anowarul Islam Bharbhuiya of Assam’s Cachar district and Abdul Shukkur of Assam’s Karimganj district, Abdul Karim of Assam’s Boko, Abdul Kalam of Assam’s Barpeta district and Shyamcharan Debbarma of Tripura.
Six other migrant miners from Assam managed to escape the tragedy and they were later escorted by Meghalaya police to their respective homes in Assam.
Earlier, Meghalaya police had arrested Shining Langstang, the current owner of the illegal coal mine at Umpleng area, while K. Chyrmang, the former owner of the mine was also detained by the police for questioning.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Nizam Uddin, the manager of the illegal coal mine who has been absconding following the mining tragedy, remained untraced, even as the Meghalaya police have issued a lookout notice for him.
Unscientific ‘rat-hole’ coal mining has been banned in the unregulated mines in Meghalaya since April 2014 by a National Green Tribunal order, but illegal mines like this one have flourished freely due to poor enforcement of the ban.
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