Who are Munna Qureshi and Wakeel Khan rat-hole miners involved in the Uttarkashi tunnel rescue

Who are Munna Qureshi and Wakeel Khan rat-hole miners involved in the Uttarkashi tunnel rescue

Munna Qureshi became the first miner to reach the trapped man in the recent Uttarakhand tunnel rescue operation, find out more about him below along with Wakeel Khan

Munna and the team of rat-hole miners on Wednesday managed to bring a successful end to the Uttarakhand rescue operation.

Who are Munna Qureshi and Wakeel Khan rat-hole miner involved in the Uttarkashi tunnel rescue

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Following the successful rescue operation, PM Modi proceeded to share a message saluting the spirit of all the people associated with the operation.

Uttarakhand tunnel rescue operation ends in success

The massive 17-day rescue operation in the Silkyara tunnel started off with authorities deploying several government agencies and their huge forces in the unpredictable terrain of the Uttarakhand tunnel 24×7. Authorities also sent in a US-made auger machine as part of the operation. However, they had to extract it from the tunnel after it failed. As a result, the rat-hole miners became the last resort of the rescue operation. Rat-hole mining involves taking out coal by digging small pits. It was a process originally banned in 2014 as a method of extracting coal because it was unscientific.

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Alongside Munna, the other rat-hole miners who reached the trapped men were Monu Kumar, Wakeel Khan, Feroz, Parsadi Lodhi, and Vipin Rajout. One of the miners shared how the trapped man gave him almonds. The miners reportedly stayed there for half an hour before the NDRF made their way to rescue the trapped men. The rescue operation successfully ended on Wednesday after all 41 of the workers walked out of the entrapment healthy. Following which the rescuers were left in the limelight and received all the praise for their hard work.

Munna Qureshi biography

Munna Qureshi is a 29-year-old rat-hole miner who is being hailed as the hero in the Uttarakhand tunnel rescue operation. Qureshi currently works for a Delhi-based company that offers trenchless engineering services for clearing sewer and water lines. Munna was one of the several dozens of rat-hole miners that came in to Uttarakhand on Monday to remove the last 12 metres of debris in the rescue operation. Munna Qureshi shared how he removed the last rock on Tuesday evening before he eventually saw the 41 trapped workers. He shared:

They hugged me, cheered in applause, and thanked me profusely.”

Not much is known about Wakeel Khan.

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