E-Paper
Body of 1 Assam labourer missing from Arunachal found; 18 others untraceable
The 19 labourers working at a Arunachal Pradesh border road construction site left for their home in Assam on their own after being denied leave on July 5 and had been untraceable since then
A labourer from Assam, one of the 19 who went missing after reportedly going on unsanctioned leave from a border road construction site in Arunachal Pradesh, has been found dead, people aware of the matter said.
The other 18 workers are still untraceable, Bengia Nighee, deputy commissioner of Arunachal Pradesh’s Kurung Kumey district said. They were working at a road construction site of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in Damin circle of the district which borders China had been missing from July 5.
“The 19 labourers were brought from Assam by the contractor involved in road construction. Due to communication bottlenecks, we got information on July 13 that all of them escaped from the work site, which is located around 150km from the district headquarters Koloriang,” said Bengia Nighee.
It is not clear why the labourers left the site but it is being speculated that they wanted to go home to celebrate Eid-al-Adha on July 10 but were denied permission by their employer. They nevertheless left the project site without intimation.
“As soon as we got information about the missing labourers, we launched search operations. But despite searching the nearby jungles and other routes, they were not found. On Monday, the body of one of those labourers was recovered from the Furak river,” Nighee said.
The spot where the labourer’s body was found is about 200km from the district headquarters and about 80-90 km from the India-China border, officials said.
A team of district police and administrative officials left for the site where the body was found early on Tuesday morning and they are expected to reach the location by afternoon.
“There is no trace yet of the other 18 labourers and we have no idea whether they reached Assam or are still missing. Efforts to locate them will continue,” Nighee said.
