JEWAR: On the stretch between Greater Noida and Bulandshahr, the last 12 months have witnessed at least three ambushes similar to Thursday's by gangs of robbers. In two of them, at Bulandshahr's Dostpur village last July and on Thursday in Jewar, they didn't stop at loot but went on to commit crimes far more grave.Over this period, there have also been instances of gangs throwing rods at windscreens to stop cars and rob passengers in places around the Yamuna expressway , putting a huge question mark on security in the region. Policing is thin in these parts, and despite these heinous crimes, there has been no reinforcement of the weak law and order apparatus.On January 23 this year, a gang robbed passengers of a luxury bus travelling to Lucknow from Delhi on the Yamuna expressway. Two passengers who tried to resist the robbery were shot at. The crime took place close to milestone 52 of the expressway in the Tappal police station of Aligarh district. According to police, a tyre of the bus had suffered a pucture.On December 26, 2016, a family returning home to Delhi from Kanpur via Yamuna expressway was waylaid a few kilometres from Jewar toll plaza between 2am and 2.15am. The assailants first distracted the driver by throwing a metal rod at their car. The family was then robbed of their jewellery worth Rs 20 lakh and let off.No lessons had been learnt from the crime that shook the nation just six months before that when a woman and her teenaged daughter were raped by a gang of armed robbers on July 29 in Bulandshahr after an ambush very similar to the one witnesses in Jewar on Thursday. A year ago, on May 16 last year, local residents said a family was robbed in another such ambush on the same Sarfabad-Jewar road where Thursday's attack Taking note of the recurring crimes, police had in January this year put up pamphlets at toll plazas along the Yamuna expressway warning commuters against the 'Axle gangs'. The cautionary notices in Hindi warned commuters about the robbers' modus operandi, which is to stop a car by throwing metallic objects like an axle, rod, etc, and then rob the occupants when the vehicle comes to a halt. Police had warned commuters from stopping their vehicles after hearing any noise emanating from near the vehicle, especially during odd hours. "Commuters had been asked to immediately dial 100 for help," said a police officer. Jaypee group, the concessionaire which manages the expressway, was also asked to run a scroll with such a warning on the toll plaza display board.Inspector general of police, Meerut Range, Ram Kumar, said police were scanning the details of gangs of criminals. "Steps are being taken to ensure such heinous crimes are not repeated. We will beef up police presence on the highways and expressways," he said.

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