Lagatar24 Desk
Guwahati, July 19: Arunachal Pradesh’s remote Kurung Kumey district, not far from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, has begun a search operation to identify a group of 19 road construction workers who went missing from a border road building site in Damin circle two weeks ago. From the state capital Itanagar, the location is around 300 kilometres away.
Sources claim that a dead laborer’s body was found in the Kumey river. According to officials, teams have been dispatched to investigate the accuracy of this report.
19 migrant workers who had come from Assam to work for a contractor allegedly fled the labour camps at the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in Damin circle on July 5 after the contractor allegedly denied them permission to return to their homes in Assam to celebrate Eid al-Adha last week, according to a missing complaint filed by the contractor.
According to police sources, the missing report was turned in at the neighbourhood police station on July 13.
“What we can confirm is that 19 construction workers who fled the construction site, according to the missing report filed last week, are still untraced. There is a social media post doing rounds about a dead body seen in the river area and we have sent out senior officials and a police party to verify this information. The area is extremely remote with hilly terrains and dense jungles, our search operations are on,” said Deputy Commissioner of Kurung Kumey district Nighee Bengia.
The Deputy Commissioner further stated that Damin is another 15 km from the construction site and that Koloriang is roughly 130 km away from Damin.
According to officials, Damin, the final administrative circle in the region, is around 80 kilometres from the LAC with China. According to the police, they have filed another complaint against the subcontractor from Lakhimpur in Assam who is accused of transporting those migrant workers from Assam.
