Meghalaya coal mine tragedy: Family unaware of miner’s whereabouts

While East Jaintia Hills SP has issued the names of 5 mine workers missing after the coal mine tragedy in East Jaintia Hills District, families and neighbours of one of the miners is yet to get any update about his whereabouts.

Karimul Bari, a resident of Cachar District in Assam, told EastMojo that his neighbour Anowarul Islam Barbhuiya was among the five miners who have been trapped.
He said that the families came to know about the incident late Sunday evening, whereas the incident took place early Sunday morning.

“One of the mine workers had escaped the tragedy and had suffered a few injuries. He informed the family. There is a 99% possibility that he and the other miners are no more,” said Bari.

He added that since the families were illiterate and just crying not having a clue what to do, Bari took the family members to the police station on Sunday around 11 pm. It was then that the police from Cachar district had contacted the Khliehriat Police Station and had confirmed the incident but they are waiting for more details.

Failing to get accurate information, Bari on Monday took to Twitter to report about the incident. He was able to get the attention of Assam Police who then tagged Cachar Police and thereon to East Jaintia Hills Police.

The police have been able to identify the names of only 3 of the 5 persons trapped in the mines: Abdul Karim from Boko, Assam, Abdul Kalam from Barpeta, Assam and Shyamcharan Debbarma from Tripura. The remaining two persons are from Silchar, Assam but the names have not yet been identified.

The police have urged if anyone has any information about the remaining persons from Silchar to contact this phone number +91 7005286235 , +91 7005933923