A ROBBERY IN RUNNING TRAIN
Robberies or crimes are so frequent those days. I had a bitter experience of the same.
Once I was going by Frontier Mail from Delhi to Amritsar. It was a cold night. The train was running at full speed. The tree, houses, poles, etc. were wheeling back. The stations were passing one after another. The train halted at only selected stations. Some persons were dozing, some were reading novels, magazines and newspaper, some of them were playing cards, some were discussing important political matters and burning questions of the day and some of them were gossiping and chatting. The train was now heading for the important station of Shahabad Markanda.
All of a sudden I saw some persons quietly entering the compartment. They had rifles and sharp knives in their hands and had covered their faces with a cloth. One of the dacoits ordered the passengers to raise their hands up or would be shot dead. The faces of all passengers turned pale and without uttering a word, all raised their hands. The dacoits took whatever they could and snatched from whoever resisted. The women and children were crying but the dacoits turned a deaf ear to their cries and shrieks. One of the passengers resisted in parting with his valuables but they stabbed him to death. Someone pulled the chain. In the cover of darkness when the train stopped, they vanished.
The guard came to our compartment and found the condition of the passengers miserable. He asked the reason from the weeping women and crying children. By the time many passengers had come out of their compartments and gathered in front of our compartment. No one dared to chase the dacoits. The dead body of the passenger was removed and sent for the postmortem examination by the railway police.
The dacoits had run away with looted booty. The police after searching here and there dropped the idea of chasing them. The train again moved on. No one cared for the passenger who had been robbed.