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Munna Qureshi
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Lifesavers · Uttarakhand

The last twelve metres

When a giant drilling machine broke down metres from 41 trapped workers, a small team of rat-hole miners crawled into a narrow pipe and finished the job by hand. Munna Qureshi was among the first through.

Munna Qureshiमुन्ना क़ुरैशी
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Munna Qureshi after the Silkyara rescue, November 2023. Photo: via Aaj Tak

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Incident
Silkyara tunnel rescue, Uttarkashi, November 2023
Role
Rat-hole miner, final manual breakthrough team
Outcome
41 workers rescued after 17 days
Honour
Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak 2024
41workers rescued
17days trapped
~12 mdug by hand (reported)

Seventeen days in Silkyara

Munna Qureshi’s story is tied to the Silkyara tunnel rescue of November 2023, when 41 workers were trapped for 17 days. In the final stage, after the heavy auger drilling equipment failed, a team of experienced rat-hole miners was brought in to dig by hand inside a narrow pipe.

By hand, inside a pipe

According to independent reporting, Qureshi was one of the team’s key workers. The Hindustan Times described him as about 29 at the time, and wrote that the team had to clear debris by hand inside a pipe about 2.6 feet wide. The final stretch dug by hand is reported to have been about 12 metres.

Sources put the team’s continuous work at about 24 to 26 hours. Many reports call Qureshi the first miner to physically reach the trapped workers, and the moment the workers embraced him captured the human side of the rescue.

The highest category

In the 2024 Jeevan Raksha Padak list announced on 25 January 2025, the Government of India chose Munna Qureshi for the Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak. Short cards may say just “Jeevan Raksha Padak”, but the official list records the highest category, Sarvottam.

In a complex rescue, both technology and skilled manual work can be essential. And team effort should always come before individual glory.

Sources