Dacoits strike express train in Bihar, India – Loot valuables worth $20,000 and hurt 21 passengers
Good grief.. This has been going on for a while and still no solutions.. Govt. of India needs to kick some butt and get this issue taken care off before the passengers start taking things into their own hands.. LA Times says: “Armed outlaws take cash and valuables from passengers in more than 100 heists a year. Poorly paid security forces and weak governance don’t offer much protection..”
A large group of armed robbers struck the Sealdah—New Delhi Lal Quila Express today, fired at GRP personnel, assaulted passengers and looted them near Bhalui halt in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district, leaving 21 people, including a jawan, injured.
Enraged over the incident, passengers, mostly kanwarias (devotees of Lord Shiva), shouted slogans and ransacked the office of the station master in Kiul.
Around 35 robbers boarded the train at Jamui station and walked into AC and sleeper coaches of the train and started looting cash and valuables, including jewellery and mobile phones worth Rs 2.50 lakh, from the passengers, official sources said quoting the FIR registered by six passengers.
As the unarmed GRP personnel resisted them, they opened fire critically wounding one of them. The jawan has been hospitalised at a nearby hospital, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Railway) R K Sharma said.
According to the sources, four robbers had earlier boarded the train at Jamui railway station, but passengers and the jawans overpowered them and caught two of them. The other two who managed to escape, alerted their accomplices and the robbery took place at the next halt.
