Several passengers were injured and at least a dozen were robbed of their valuables after an armed gang struck at three trains near Kanpur station in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The robbers, whom eyewitnesses described as men in their twenties, first barged into the Mumbai-bound Gorakhpur-Lokmanya Terminal Express where they threatened passengers and proceeded to rob them. When some passengers resisted, they were assaulted. “One passenger was stabbed while another was clubbed with a country-pistol,” a police spokesperson said.
The gang then similarly robbed passengers of the Vaishali Express and the Lucknow-Kanpur passenger train.
Witnesses said all three robberies took place in the span of an hour, between 12:30 am and 1:30 am, as the trains were waiting for signal in the outer area of the Kanpur station.
Blood stainsBhopal-based scribe Abhimanyu Singh, who was in one of the sleeper bogies, said he was confronted by gun-wielding robbers.
“The train had stopped near the outer area of the Kanpur station. I was woken up by gun shots and soon I found a young man pointing his pistol at me. Since our bogie was attached to the pantry, we had no way of escaping.”
He handed them his mobile phone, but managed to stuff his wallet into his boots.
“There was blood splatter in the bogie. I am not sure if someone was stabbed or shot,” he told The Hindu .
