Want decent burial, say families as bodies pulled out of mine fall apart'

Shillong: The families of the trapped miners inside the 370-ft flooded coal mine in Meghalaya on Thursday demanded that they want the “dead bodies” of the miners to be taken out as per the Supreme Court order, reported IANS.

“The body will be extracted under the supervision of doctors," said a Navy spokesperson in a tweet.

Malik Ali, brother of Munirul Islam, who is among those trapped miners said that the rescuers showed them the video footages of a dead body stuck inside the mine. They are unaware whose body it is but want the government to get the bodies out of the coal mine.

Ali added that they want his body back so that they can give him a decent burial.

With body showing signs of decomposition, the district administration has sought the consent of the family members of the miner to furnish their decision by Friday on whether the bodies could be taken out from the mine.

Reginal Susngi, rescue spokesperson said as per the expert opinion, the body could only be retrieved after it is disintegrated. The body has been pulled up to 100 ft from 210 ft.

After 32 days, a body has been detected after miners got trapped inside the mine on December 13 as water gushed in.

However, five miners managed to escape and alert the people about the incident. Rescue efforts are on to salvage the others.

The Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction with the rescue operation and said, “No matter whether they are all dead, some alive, few dead or all alive, they should have been taken out by now.”