The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Tuesday informed that the rescue operation for the 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel for 16 days is nearing a breakthrough, but is “not yet there”. This comes after rat-hole mining experts were called in to manually complete the last two metres of drilling after removing broken parts of the auger drilling machine. NDMA Member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain stated that 58 metres of drilling has been done, and the rescue pipe needs to be pushed another two metres.