Summary:
SHILLONG: More than two months after 15 miners got trapped inside a flooded coal mine in the East Jaintia Hills, a team of Indian Navy and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescuers retrieved another body on Wednesday.The body, second to be retrieved so far, was pulled out of the 370-feet illegal rat-hole mine, handed over to Meghalaya Police and taken to Khliehriat hospital for autopsy. The Supreme Court had directed the Centre and the State to rescue the miners “dead or alive”. Besides all safety measures provided by NDRF, inflatable boat, body bag and other equipment were used during the operation,” an official added.Earlier, Navy divers had retrieved the first body, identified as that of Amir Hussain from Assam’s Chirang district on January 23. The body was detected with the help of a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV), at a depth of 230 feet inside the mine located at remote Khloo Ryngksan.Operations will continue to try and locate the other miners who had gone missing inside the illegal coal pit. “The highly decomposed unidentified body was pulled to the surface by the Indian Navy’s underwater remotely operated vehicle (UROV) and then taken out in a container to the higher grounds at 1.20pm,” a rescue official said.“Five rescue operators, including four from the NDRF and one Navy diver, went into the main shaft..