Guwahati, July 29: Bodies of five Assam labourers, who were among the 19 missing from a road construction site in Arunachal Pradesh’s Kurung Kumey district for a fortnight, were found in a dense forest, a senior district official said on Friday.
Rescue teams have found the five decomposed bodies in the dense forest between Huri and Tapa in the last couple of days, Kurung Kumey Deputy Commissioner Nighee Bengia said.
The bodies were found in different locations and on different dates – one on July 25, three on July 26 and one on July 28, Bengia said. He said that with the recovery of the five bodies, the number of deaths in the incident rose to six.
One Hikmat Ali was drowned in Furak river. With this, the total number of deaths increased to six, Bengia said.
The five decomposed bodies could not, however, be brought back. The labourers from Assam fled the remote road construction site at Damin circle, 200 kms from the district headquarters of Koloriang on the Indo-China border on July 5 after they were denied leave to go home during Eid. They then set out for their homes on foot in two groups of eight and 11 and have been missing since then.
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So far ten labourers were rescued in disoriented condition and are recuperating in health facilities, Bengia said. The district commissioner said that he had directed the police, SDRF and local teams to continue the search operation till the remaining three missing labourers are found dead or alive.
The IAF chopper, which undertook a search operation on July 23, suspended it due to inclement weather and is waiting for good weather to resume.
The DC said according to the rescued labourers the bodies were that of Forizul Haque, Moijal Haque, Sohar Ali, and Abul Hussain. The fifth body is yet to be identified. The rescued labourers are Khairul Islam (26), Majidul Ali (30), Monohar Hussain (18), Inamul Hussain (18), Jainal Ali (45), Hamidul Hussain, Abdul Amin, Ibrahim Ali, Kholebuddin Shiek (27) and Shamidul Sheik (19), he added.
