Mizoram stone quarry collapse: Eight labourers' bodies found; four missing

AIZAWL: The bodies of five labourers from Bengal, two from Jharkhand and one from Assam have been retrieved from the debris of a stone quarry that collapsed on 12 men on Monday when they were working on a highway expansion project at Maudarh village in south Mizoram's Hnahthial district, reports H C Vanlalruata. Rescuers were digging through the rubble to locate the four other men, an official said Tuesday.
Of the dead, the five from Bengal were identified as Madan Das (25), Rakesh Biswas (21), Mintu Mandal (22), Buddhadeb Mondal (25) and Subrata Raptan (24). Surjit Roy (26) was from Assam, and Khemlal Kumar (22) and Omprakash Kumar (18) were from Jharkhand. Those trapped and presumed to be dead are Ajoy Chakma (25) and Kahamrai (49) of Mizoram, Shofiqul Islam (26) and Jahidur Islam (27) of Assam.
Of the 12 victims, four were employees of ABCI Infrastructure Ltd, and the rest were employed by a sub-contractor. Engineers said the company might have flouted regulations and that led to the tragedy.
(Inputs from Ashis Poddar & Sanjib Chakraborty in Kolkata)