Police deny report of 5 deaths in Thangsko coal mine blast

Police in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills district have rejected a newspaper report that five people were killed in an explosion at an illegal coal mine in Thangsko about two weeks ago.

Superintendent of Police Shailendra Bamaniya said police carried out extensive checks after the report appeared in an English daily on Friday and found no evidence that such an incident had happened, The Shillong Times reported, citing a police press release. Police also contacted the Dolloi (traditional chief) of Elaka Sutnga, who said nothing matching the report had taken place.

What the report claimed

The report said five labourers from outside the state were feared dead after a blast at an illegal mine in Thangsko, and that their bodies had been quickly taken to Assam to hide the fact that mining was going on.

Why Thangsko matters

The area has a recent history. On February 5 this year, a dynamite explosion at an illegal rat-hole coal mine in the Mynsngat area of Thangsko killed 33 workers, most of them migrants. The toll rose from 18 as NDRF, SDRF and police teams recovered bodies over several days, and investigators found detonators and wiring inside the tunnels.

Congress attacks government

The Meghalaya Congress on Friday accused the government of allowing illegal coal mining and transport to continue. Party secretary Manuel Badwar alleged a nexus between powerful interests and officials, and said coal was being mined and moved openly despite court bans and monitoring. He cited the Thangsko report and the recent overturning of a coal-laden truck in Shillong, which blocked traffic for hours, and asked how the vehicle had passed several checkpoints without being stopped. Such incidents, he argued, point to a breakdown in enforcement.

Badwar recalled that the National Green Tribunal banned rat-hole mining in Meghalaya in 2014, and that the High Court later appointed a committee headed by retired judge Justice BP Katakey to monitor the issue. Despite these measures, he said, illegal mining and the deaths linked to it have continued, which in his view raises doubts about the government's commitment to court orders.

What happens next

The police statement settles, for now, the question of whether a fresh blast took place, but the dispute over illegal mining in East Jaintia Hills is likely to continue. The government had not responded to the Congress allegations in the reports available, and NEInsider will update this story if it does.