GUWAHATI, SEP 19: Three coal miners were killed in an illegal rat hole mine at Ledo in upper Assam Tinsukia district located along the Assam-Arunachal border on Sunday night.
Confirming the incident, Tinsukia SP Debojit Deuri said that the police has so far arrested five persons following the incident in conection with the killing of three coal miners.
The SP said that that inhalation of poisonous gas like methane is suspected to have cause the coal miners death.
The dead miners have been identifed as as Sahidul Islam, Hussain Ali (both from Bongaigaon district) and Hasmat Ali (Goalpara district) all below the age of thirty years.
“The rat hole mine was being run illegally in a remote hill top. The incident took place at around 8.30pm on Sunday when the miners entered the mine to extract coal. We suspect there was leakage of poisonous gas like methane inside the mine causing their deaths. We have arrested five persons as they were trying to bury the bodies and hush up the incident. We will take stringent action against any such illegal coal mining activities. Postmortem will be done on the bodies before they are handed over to the respective families,” Deuri said.
Sources said the illegal rat hole mine along with several others is being run by one David Naga and the three miners were brought to work by one Joynal Ali who acted as the supplier of workers.
“In many areas of Margherita and Ledo area, illegal rat hole mining has been running. The coal smugglers are running the rat hole mining in a very organised way and managing the whole system. Few months, ago, miners engaging in coal mining died after traped in the illegal coal mine but their dead body was disposed by the coal smugglers” said a source.