Meghalaya police confirmed that four out of five miners, who were trapped in coal mine in East Jaintia Hills, were from Assam.
As per sources, the other miner was from Tripura.
State police also informed that there were actually five people trapped inside the mine. Earlier it was speculated that there were six of them.
The incident took place on Sunday at around 5 PM when a dynamite suddenly exploded and a sudden rush of water flowed into the mine, trapping all five miners.
The mining site has been identified at Sutnga interior under East Jaintia Hills district.
The identities of the miners have also been ascertained by East Jaintia police. They are – Abdul Karim from Boko, Abdul Kalam from Barpeta, Shyamcharan Debbarma from Tripura, and two others from Silchar.
The main culprit has been identified as the sorder of the area identified as Nizam Ali. He even threatened the survivors with dire consequences and chased them away from mining site.
Meanwhile, the police have arrested the coal mine owner's brother and conducted a Rapid Antigen Test where he was found to be positive for COVID 19 and therefore, he is kept in an isolation Centre.
On Tuesday, it is learnt that the District administration will send an Underwater Cameras for Visual Inspection to get the knowledge of what is inside.
Earlier this year in January, at least six coal mine workers from Assam were killed in a coal mine in East Jaintia Hills district. They had fallen to a depth of 150 feet after the machine they were using to dig a tunnel broke.
