Patna:
Early on Friday morning, about 50 armed men walked into three air-conditioned coaches of a train at a temporary halt in Bihar, stole valuables and cash, beat up passengers leaving 25 injured and walked out. One passenger has gunshot wounds.
(See Pics)The passengers are livid. They have alleged that there was no Government Railway Police (GRP) or Railway Protection Force (RPF) escort on the train. Where is one safe?
The police say there was one escort party of four jawans on the Lal Quila Express from Howrah to Delhi. But the jawans were unarmed. And as such sitting ducks for a mob of 50 armed dacoits. (
Read-Bihar train robbery: 50 dacoits loot Delhi-bound Lal Quila Express)
Four robbers got into the train at Jamui railway station, but passengers and the jawans overpowered them. Two, the police said, were caught, the other two managed to escape.
The police said that those who got away are then believed to have alerted their accomplices, and the train was robbed at the next halt. At that station, there was all of one RPF jawan posted.
Police sources say of the 275 trains that need security in Bihar, only 15 per cent are patrolled by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the rest by the Bihar police. Which they say, simply does not have the manpower to patrol every train.