A gang of around a dozen masked men carrying firearms waylaid a bus in Bihar's Nawada and robbed it during the early hours of Wednesday in a throwback to the pre-Nitish Kumar era in the state, when such incidents were common.

The bus belonging to one Bundela Travels was plying from Dhanbad in Jharkhand to Biharsharif in Nalanda, the home district of Nitish. A couple of outlaws suddenly came in front of the bus and forced it to stop. The rest quickly boarded it and started snatching the valuables of the passengers.

The robbers concentrated on looting money and jewellery, including chains, rings, bracelets, earrings, purses and mobile phones. They pulled the earrings of a woman, tearing and injuring her ears badly.

Within a few minutes, the culprits alighted from the bus and fled towards Khuri river that flows close by. Incidentally, the place of occurrence is less than a kilometre from the Bundelkhand police station in the town.

“The bus was forced to stop at around 3am. We kept dialling the numbers of the police, but they were switched off. Finally, the police were informed and they came walking. The government must get us back the looted valuables,” said Swati Kumari, a passenger whose gold chain was robbed.

The victims expressed anger and demonstrated against the police on the occasion.

“The local police conducted a search operation in the direction towards which the miscreants fled. However, they escaped taking advantage of darkness. An FIR has been registered and a special investigation team (SIT) under the leadership of Sadar sub-divisional police officer has been constituted. We are in the process of identifying the miscreants and expect to arrest them within 24 hours,” Nawada superintendent of police (SP) Ambrish Rahul told reporters.

The bus left for Biharsharif after a delay of a couple of hours.