Mizoram Stone Quarry Tragedy: Mass Search Ops to Find Assam Worker Ends

Jahindur is among the 12 labourers who were buried at the stone quarry collapse at Maudarh village on November 14.

Reported by Isaac Zoramsanga

The mass search operations to find Jahindur Islam (27) of Assam’s Barpeta district has been called off. Islam was among those killed in the Maudarh stone quarry accident that took place in Mizoram on Monday last.

The search operations were called off on Sunday evening, almost a week after the tragedy.

Jahindur along with the other 11 labourers was buried at the stone quarry collapse site at Maudarh village in Hnahthial district in Mizoram on November 14, 2022.

Hnahthial district officials have expressed anguish for the failure to find Jahindur’s body even when the Mizo customary search for missing people for seven days expired.

The Mizoram Police used sniffer dogs to find the missing body of Islam. The dogs seemed to have got a whiff of the body, said police officials.

The ABCI Infrastructure Private Limited spokesperson however said that the company workers would continue the search operations. He also lauded the efforts of volunteers from nearby Leite and surrounding villages in undertaking the search operations to recover the 12 bodies.

It may be mentioned that the bodies of 11 workers were found after relentless search operations, while Islam remained untraced despite round-the-clock search since November 14 night.

The search and rescue operations were conducted by NDRF, SDRF, Mizoram Police and ABCI Infrastructure Private Limited, the company that was conducting the excavation activities as part of its National Highway widening and construction work.

The ABCI Infrastructure spokesperson said that the loss to the company due to the disaster was around Rs 8 crore with 3 excavators and 2 compressors remaining unrecovered till date.

According to police officials, a criminal case has been filed in Hnahthial Police Station against ABCI Infrastructure Private Limited for the deaths of 12 workers caused by the collapse of a stone quarry run by the road construction company.

Police said that the criminal case was registered against the ABCI accusing the company of causing death by negligence under section 304A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Copy edited by Lipika Roy

Also Read: Mizoram quarry collapse: Last body located; search, rescue ops to continue

COMMENTS