Almost a month after five miners got stuck in a rat hole coal mine in the East Jaintia Hills in the northeastern state of Meghalaya, divers from the Indian Navy have retrieved the bodies of three labourers while two other bodies are yet to be taken out.

According to a press release released by the Meghalaya Police, a sudden dynamite blast in the mine had caused heavy inflow of water due to which the five miners got stuck inside the mine-hole.

It is reported that the victims are named as Abdul Karim from Boko, Abdul Kalam from Barpeta and two more unidentified miners from Assam. The fifth person was identified as Shyamcharan Debbarma from Tripura.

The East Jaintia Hills Police identified a person named Nizam Ali as the primary accused, who they said “did nothing to rescue the trapped labourers” and instead threatened those who survived.

Rat hole mining, which involves digging up of a narrow hole in the ground to extract holes, is banned by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) but it is still illegally rampant in Meghalaya. Incidents of miners dying in these dangerous mines have often been reported.

In January, six workers had lost their lives after they fell to a depth of 150 feet as the machine they were using to dig a tunnel broke down.

Also, in a similar incident, in December, 2018, a total of 15 miners got trapped in a mine when it got flooded near the Lytein river in the East Jaintia Hills district.

A joint rescue-mission was launched by the Indian Navy and personnel from the National Disaster Response Force but only two bodies could be retrieved in the operation which was called off in July, 2019.