Assam coal mine mishap: Bodies of remaining five miners recovered after 42 days

Guwahati: Forty-two days after nine miners went missing in a flooded coal mine at Umrangso in Assam's hilly Dima Hasao district, bodies of five remaining victims were recovered on Wednesday.

The five victims were identified as Hussain Ali, Jakir Hussain, Mostafa Sheikh (all from Darrang district of Assam), Sarpa Barman of Kokrajhar district of Assam and Sanjit Sarkar from West Bengal.

The mishap took place on January 6 and bodies of four miners were found days later. But five remained missing with rescuers unable to carry out the search due to deep water in the well.

The NDRF, SDRF, army and even deep divers of Indian Navy were pressed into the search operation. But the Navy was withdrawn due to stagnant water in the flooded mine. 

"Today the dewatering of the Umrangso mines was completed to a level where retrieval operations could be launched. The mortal remains of the remaining five miners have been recovered and brought up from the mine shaft. The process to identify the remains has been initiated," CM Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X. 

The four bodies were earlier identified by their families and were handed over to them. One of the victim was from Nepal. 

Following the mishap in the illegal coal mine, the BJP-led government in the state identified more than 200 similar illegal mines in the area. 

This prompted the Opposition Congress and others to attack the state government and the authorities in the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council as to how such illegal activities continued.

They alleged involvement of politicians, police, forest department personnel and the officials of Assam Mines and Minerals Corporation. The state government instituted a judicial inquiry and police arrested 11 persons in connection with the mishap. 

The Gauhati High Court also took a suo-motu cognizance and asked the state government and other agencies to file affidavits about the steps taken to curb illegal "rat hole" coal mining.