GUWAHATI, JULY 23: After 18 days, 8 construction workers out of the 19 construction workers who went missing from a road construction project in remote Kurung Kumey district of Arunachal Pradesh were rescued by ground rescue teams in starving and critical condition.
Talking to this correspondent, Kurung Kumey deputy commissioner Nighee Bengia said that 4 of the missing workers were rescued on Friday evening itself while 3 more workers were rescued at around 12.20am on Saturday. One more worker was rescued at around 4.45pm on Saturday in an extremely critical condition. The DC further said that the rescued workers have mentioned that two of their fellow workers have died who they have left behind.
However rescue teams are yet to recover the bodies. On July 5, nineteen construction workers from Assam who were engaged in a Border Road Organisation (BRO) road project in remote Kurung Kumey district close to the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh had gone missing from their camp.
Five of the rescued workers whose condition were critical were airlifted TRIHMS, Naharlagun for treatment.
“8 of the 19 workers who went missing on July 5 have been rescued. Five of them have been evacuated by an IAF chopper to TRIHMS, Naharlagun as their condition is very serious. They were starving and in severe dehydrated condition. We have been told by the rescued workers that two of them had died and they had left behind the bodies. Our teams are trying to locate the bodies. The search for the other missing workers is still on,” the deputy commissioner said.
The rescued workers have been identified as Abdul Nami, Monowar Hussain, Majidul Ali, Joinair Ali, Imanul Hussain, Khairul Islam, Hamidul Hussain and Ibrahim Ali.
Earlier, an Mi-17 chopper from the Indian Air Force Station, Tezpur joined the search operation from 7am on Saturday. The chopper will resume the search operation on Sunday.