Guwahati, Sep 19 (IANS): At least three labourers died in an accident at an illegally operated coal mine in Assam's Tinsukia district on Sunday night.

It has been alleged that to avoid any sort of police interrogation, the bodies of the three labourers were buried secretly.

Superintendent of Police, Tinsukia district Debojit Deuri told IANS, "We cannot call it a coal mine. Just like a rat hole mining, it was operated by a few persons where only 11 labourers were involved."

He informed that police have detained a few other labourers. On interrogating them, police came to know about the incident and launched an operation on Monday to recover the dead bodies. But, police are still in doubt about the exact burial place of the dead bodies.

The incident happened at the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border and it falls in the remote part of the district.

The police officer said: "We could know that a man called David Naga was looking after the illegal coal business. Once the incident happened, he flew from there to avoid arrest. We have started a search operation to nab the man."

Deuri further informed that the incident might happen due to gas leakage in the illegally operated coal mine.

The three deceased labourers were identified as Shahidul Islam, Hussain Ali of Jogighopa in Bongaigaon district and Asmat Ali of Boguan in Goalpara district in Assam.