Of late, travelling even by train has become unsafe. We daily hear gruesome tales of murder and robbery in running trains.
Last month, two ladies of a very well-to-do and respectable family were travelling by the Frontier Mail. They were travelling first class. They were not accompanied by any male member. The train reached the Jullundur railway station at 8 p.m. The ladies had tea and then lay down to take rest.
As the train moved, two dacoits with masks on their faces boarded the footboard of their compartment. They were armed with pistols and other deadly weapons. When the train gathered speed, they broke the window pane and forced their way into the compartment.
The ladies were frightened to death. They tried to raise a hue and cry. The dacoits handled them roughly, levelled their pistols at them and showed them their knives. The poor helpless ladies were silenced. They searched them and their suitcases. They removed whatever cash and jewellery they could lay their hands on.
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But this was not all. Now they turned to finish the two ladies. All their entreaties to spare their lives fell on deaf ears. They were attacked with sharp knives. They were strangled to death.
The dacoits then pulled the alarm chain. As the train slowed down, they jumped out of it and made good their escape under cover of darkness.
The police rushed to the ladies compartment. Great was their horror to see the two ladies lying brutally murdered in a pool of blood. The train was detained. A vigorous search was made for the dacoits but no clue of the dacoits was found. What a tragedy!