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EXPLAINER

After machines broke down, rat miners successfully rescued 41 workers trapped in India’s Uttarakhand tunnel.

Forty-one construction workers. Seventeen days. A nation’s hopes.

On Tuesday, rescue workers managed to bring India a dose of good news, saving 41 men who had been trapped under a collapsed tunnel in India’s Himalayan Uttarakhand state since November 12.

But after days of attempts, it wasn’t just high-tech tools that brought success — a team of so-called rat miners, practicing a craft that’s officially illegal, proved saviours too.

Here’s how the workers were rescued.

What happened to the Uttarakhand tunnel?

The under-construction Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel collapsed in Uttarakhand early morning on November 12. Low-wage construction workers, mostly from other northern and eastern Indian states, were consequently trapped in a 4.5km (3-mile) space underground.

The tunnel was part of Indian PM Narendra Modi’s ambitious, $1.5m Char Dham pilgrimage program which aims to connect four Hindu pilgrimage sites.

Authorities did not confirm the exact reason for the tunnel caving in, but the region is prone to landslides, earthquakes and floods. Geologist CP Rajendran told Al Jazeera that the Himalayan terrain contains highly fragile rock and is “constantly plagued by stability issues”.

Additionally, the tunnel did not have emergency exits and was constructed through a geological fault, a member of a panel of experts investigating the disaster told Reuters.

How did the rescue unfold?

Even though contact was established with the men in the tunnel a day after the collapse, rescue operations faced several roadblocks that delayed the process.

Excavator teams deployed heavy auger machines to dig both vertically and horizontally through the debris. The first drilling machine broke down after developing snags, halting the operation until a second machine was brought in. However, after horizontally drilling about three-quarters worth of debris, the second machine also broke down.

After this, six miners from central India were tasked with drilling through the remaining rock with hand-held drills late on Monday, using a technique known as rat mining.

In an effort that took over 24 hours, the miners worked in two teams of three each, with one person drilling, the second collecting the debris and the third pushing it out of the pipe.

The rescue was successful on Tuesday evening when all the workers were retrieved from the tunnel, as they were wheeled out by rescuers on stretchers through a 90cm (3 feet) wide steel pipe.

“When we saw them inside the tunnel after the breakthrough, we hugged them like they were family,” said Nasir Hussain, one of the six miners.

The technique of manual drilling that finally rescued the workers is known as rat mining.

 

What is rat mining?

Rat mining or rat-hole mining is the process of narrow tunnel excavation by manually digging through.

The technique earns its name from its resemblance to rats burrowing holes into the ground. The practice was commonly used in the northeastern state of Meghalaya where the holes were typically just big enough for the workers to descend and extract thin seams of coal. For this reason, children were usually tasked with this job.

The lack of ventilation and safety measures brought controversy to the method, which was banned by an environmental court in 2014.

But the practice has continued to exist in the largely unorganised mining sector.

At least 15 miners were killed in one such mine in Meghalaya after being trapped for more than a month until January 2019. Rights groups say 10,000 to 15,000 have died in such mines between 2007 and 2014.

However, some of the miners in the rescue operation said they got their training in Delhi and were not coal miners.

Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, met some of the workers before they were taken to hospital, presenting them with traditional marigold garlands. Ambulances and helicopters were on standby at the entrance of the tunnel. Sweets were distributed and firecrackers were set off in celebration.

Despite the deployment of ambulances for the construction workers, “Their condition is first-class and absolutely fine … just like yours or mine. There is no tension about their health,” said Wakil Hassan, a rescue team leader.

NewsFeed

There were emotional scenes in occupied East Jerusalem when a 14-year-old Palestinian boy returned to his family after being released from jail under the Israel-Hamas truce deal.

A US military aircraft has crashed into the sea off the coast of southern Japan.

The wreckage of a US Osprey, which crashed with eight crew members on board, has been found along with a deployed lifeboat, Japan’s coastguard said on Wednesday.

The coastguard said it received an emergency call on Wednesday afternoon from a fishing boat near the crash site, which is off the island of Yakushima, located south of the main island of Kyushu.

“We received information at 2:47pm [05:47 GMT] today,” a coastguard spokesperson said. “We were also notified that there were eight crew members on board.”

The aircraft disappeared from radar at 2:40pm local time, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno confirmed.

According to witnesses, the left engine of the aircraft appeared to be on fire as it went down into the sea near Yakushima airport, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported. Nearby fishing boats rushed to the scene, locating three of the crew members.

A spokesperson for US forces in the region said they were still gathering information about the incident.

The CV-22 Osprey, belonging to the US Yokota airbase in Tokyo, departed from the Iwakuni US base in the Yamaguchi region on Wednesday, headed for the Kadena base in Okinawa, Ministry of Defense sources told NHK.

Troubled history

The hybrid aircraft, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but can rotate its propellers and cruise like an aeroplane, has a troubled history, with a string of fatal crashes over the years.

An Osprey crashed in Australia in August, killing three crew members, and injuring 20. In June last year, five Marines on board an Osprey were killed when it crashed in the California desert.

In March 2022, four Marines were killed when an Osprey crashed near a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle during a NATO exercise.

In 2017, three Marines were killed when an Osprey crashed off Australia’s north coast.

Earlier this year the US Army’s chief of staff grounded all pilots not involved in critical missions and required that they complete more training after four helicopters crashed in a matter of weeks with multiple deaths.

Sixteen pro-democracy activists are charged under national security laws critics claim are designed to stifle dissent.

Hong Kong’s largest-ever state security trial has entered its closing phase, with pro-democracy activists linked to massive street protests in 2019 charged under a contentious China-imposed national security law (NSL).

The trial of the 16 activists, accused of conspiracy to commit subversion, began closing arguments on Wednesday. If convicted, they face life in prison.

The defendants are among 47 opposition activists, including elected lawmakers, unionists, and academics, who were rounded up by police in 2021, accused of plotting to sew a constitutional crisis and subvert the government.

The case has become a bellwether of Hong Kong’s political environment and is widely considered part of Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s once-vibrant pro-democracy movement.

The law, which criminalises secession, subversion, and collusion with foreign forces to intervene in the city’s affairs, as well as terrorism, has been criticised as eroding the autonomy promised when the island returned to China in 1997. It has helped to put many pro-democracy politicians and activists in jail or exile.

What are the charges?

Throughout a 100-day trial, prosecutors have outlined what they say was a plan by the activists to subvert the government. They claim the activists aimed to organise an unofficial primary vote that would consolidate their power in the legislature.

Then, they would seek to “indiscriminately veto” government budgets to exert pressure for their demands, prosecutors say, with an ultimate aim to subvert state power or force Hong Kong’s leader to resign.

One of the activists’ key demands was an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality against thousands of Hong Kong protesters who took to the streets in 2019, in a crackdown watchdogs have decried as “brutal” and “unlawful”.

Prosecutor Jonathan Man argued the defendants’ acts clearly amounted to subversion even though there had been no actual violence.

“We are talking about a conspiracy to have legislators vetoing the budget indiscriminately,” Man said during closing arguments.

‘Right to fair trial’

Rights campaigners and experts have expressed concerns about the activists’ arrest and trial.

In October, a group of United Nations human rights experts said they were troubled by “the use of mass trials in NSL cases”, warning they could “negatively affect safeguards that ensure due process and the right to fair trial”.

Outside the court in advance of the closing debates, well-known activist Alexandra Wong was among those voicing support for the charged activists.

“I hope they can be released immediately,” said Wong. “The 47 only wanted to fight for genuine universal suffrage for us, [there were] no other motives, not to take the power.”

Most of the charged democrats have been detained for more than 1,000 days since February 28, 2021, on national security grounds, and were subjected to marathon bail hearings.

Thirty-one of the 47 charged have pleaded guilty, which could qualify them for reduced sentences. Only 16 are not pleading guilty, including former journalist Gwyneth Ho; activists Owen Chow and Gordon Ng; and ex-democratic lawmakers Leung Kwok-hung, Lam Cheuk-ting and Helena Wong.

Those who have pleaded guilty include former law professor Benny Tai and activist Joshua Wong, who will be sentenced after the trial. Four who pleaded guilty have become prosecution witnesses.

The last round of legal arguments – also known as the closing submissions – is expected to last 10 days before the court adjourns to consider the verdict.

Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have arrested seven students under a stringent terror law for allegedly celebrating India’s defeat in the cricket World Cup finals earlier this month, drawing severe criticism.

The students of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) have been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), a law deemed draconian by several rights groups.

The law, which makes securing bail almost impossible, has largely been used by India’s Hindu nationalist government against political dissenters and Muslim activists.

A senior police officer in Indian-administered Kashmir told Al Jazeera there was a face-off between the accused and some non-local students on November 19 as they watched a TV broadcast of India playing against Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium in the western state of Gujarat.

Australia beat India by six wickets to win a record-extending sixth men’s ICC Cricket World Cup, dashing India’s hopes of a third win after 1983 and 2011.

“A non-local student submitted a written complaint naming the seven Kashmiri students for abusing and threatening him and raising pro-Pakistan slogans. On the basis of the complaint, the case has been registered under the UAPA,” he said.

The non-local students at SKUAST’s Shuhama campus in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district allege the seven Kashmiri students raised anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans after India lost the game.

“After finishing the match they [students] started abusing me and targeting me for being a supporter of our country,” read the complaint by the 20-year-old student, who has not been identified by the police.

The seven students have been charged with Section 13 of UAPA which deals with advocating, abetting, or inciting the commission of any unlawful activity, and Sections 505 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code which deals with intent to incite offence against any other class or community and criminal intimidation.

As the move to invoke terror charges in a case related to sport was criticised, police on Tuesday issued a statement, defending their action.

“It is not about dissent or freedom of expression. It is about terrorising others who may be nourishing pro-India feelings or anti-Pakistan feelings,” said the statement.

A SKUAST official, on condition of anonymity since he was not authorised to speak to the media, told Al Jazeera the non-local students did not complain to the university administration and went directly to the police.

“If the students would have approached us, we could have sorted the matter out internally. The complaint did not reach us,” he said.

The official said the arrested students are in their early 20s and are studying fourth-year Bachelor of Veterinary Science.

“Even if our children made a mistake out of emotional foolishness, the harsh charges on them should be dropped. This will ruin their lives. We are requesting the government to save their future,” a relative of one of the students told Al Jazeera.

Fearing reprisals from the government, the relative did not want to be named.

It’s not the first time Kashmiri students have been charged in a case linked to cricket, a game extremely popular in the subcontinent. India and Pakistan, which both claim the Himalayan region of Kashmir in its entirety but rule over parts of it, are also arch-cricketing rivals.

In October 2021, police in Indian-administered Kashmir filed criminal cases under the same UAPA law against some students of two medical colleges for allegedly celebrating Pakistan’s victory against India in the Twenty20 World Cup. The charges were later dropped.

In another incident during the 2014 Asia Cup tournament, nearly 60 Kashmiri students were suspended by a college in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh after they allegedly celebrated Pakistan’s win over India.

Anti-India sentiments in the Indian-administered Kashmir have turned more intense since 2019 when New Delhi unilaterally scrapped its partial autonomy and brought the region under its direct control.

In a statement, the Jammu and Kashmir Students Association, a local student body, said the students booked under the UAPA belong to poor families. It demanded the dropping of the charges against them.

“The UAPA charges should be withdrawn as this punishment could ruin their future,” the association said.

Mehbooba Mufti, the last elected chief minister of the region, said the case against the students was “disconcerting and shocking”.

“Normalising slapping of laws like UAPA on journalists, activists and now students reveals the ruthless mindset of the establishment towards youngsters in [Kashmir],” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.