Meghalaya and Assam governments
File image of rescue operations being conducted to trace trapped miners in Meghalaya

National president of All India Mahila Congress (AIMC), Sushmita Dev on Sunday urged the Meghalaya and Assam governments to take necessary measures for the rescue of two miners from Assam trapped in the coal mine at Umpleng in East Jaintia Hills since May 30.

In letters addressed to the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma, Dev requested them to do the needful to trace these two labourers at the earliest.

Anwar Hussain and Abdul Sukkur were trapped along with three other miners after the coal mine they were working in had been inundated with water following a dynamite explosion.

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Hussain hails from Najatpur village of Katigorah in Cachar district, while Sukkur is a resident of Badarpur in Karimganj district.

The former MP said in the letters that both the state governments should do the needful considering the fact that the families of the two miners are anxiously waiting for their safe return.

She said that the families are desperate as there is still no news about them even after so many days have passed since they were trapped inside the coal mine.

Meghalaya fire service personnel along with the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force had been pressed into service to rescue these miners.

However, they are yet to be traced.

In a similar incident, six coal miners from Assam were killed in a coal mine in the East Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya in January this year.

The miners had fallen to a depth of 150 feet after the machine they were using to dig a tunnel broke apart.