Shillong, June 26: The bodies of three miners that have been retrieved from a flooded illegal coal mine at Krem U Le, Umpleng in East Jaintia Hills district have been identified.
The three bodies were recovered from 152 meter-deep coal mine on June 16, 24, and 25, respectively, by navy divers.
“The three dead bodies have been identified (as Anowarul Islam, Abdul Sakur and Shyam Charan Debberma) by the immediate family members,” East Jaintia Hills deputy commissioner E. Kharmalki said.
At least five miners got trapped inside an illegal coal mine in Sutnga Elaka after a tragic accident that took place on the night of May 30. Over 50 personnel from National Disaster Response Force (NDFR), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), District Disaster Response Force (DDRF), Indian Navy, Fire and Emergency Service and the police are camping at the site to search and retrieve the trapped miners. So far, police have arrested the owner of the coal mine, Shining Langstang, and charged him for violation of the NGT order banning unscientific mining and transportation of coal.
With three bodies recovered, two more remain missing in the coal mine.
The body of Anowarul Islam, a resident of Najatpur Katigorah, Assam was retrieved on June 16 and later handed over to the family on June 25 after being identified by his brother Md Sam Uddin.
The body of Abdul Sakur of Pingajal, Assam was retrieved on Friday and was handed over to his cousin brother Md Massur Ahmed on the same day while Shyam Charan Debberma’s body was handed over to his wife Lekhi Rani Debberma from Tripura on Saturday.
In continuation of the rescue operation, before resuming the dewatering process the rescue teams of NDRF and SDRF verified the level of water before the Navy divers resumed operation and found that water levels have risen by 22 feet.
During the dewatering process about 8.64 lakhs liters of water has been pumped out from shaft No 1 and about 16.20 lakhs liters of water has also been pumped out from three number of pumps from the shaft No 2 on Saturday.
Also, the Navy did not dive on Saturday due to maintenance of diving equipment, the DC said, adding that the dewatering process continues.
