PESHAWAR, July 16: An increasing number of commuters are falling prey to robbers on inter-city public transport as the culprits, masquerading as passengers, persuade innocent people to have some eatables from them during the journey. Humayun Wazir, a resident of Miramshah, North Waziristan Agency, who runs a goods forwarding firm in Lahore, was deprived of Rs80,000 after he accepted a soft drink from a fellow passenger while coming to Peshawar on an air-conditioned bus of a private transport company on July 13.

“The man who said he belonged to Nowshera was very respectful during the journey and he purchased the soft drink before my eyes at a restaurant on the Lahore-Peshawar Motorway,” said Humayun.

Zafarullah, a businessman friend of Humayun, said that when Humayun arrived in the morning he was unconscious and vomiting. “We immediately took him to the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) where doctors administered him some injections and said we should thank God that his life had been saved,” Zafarullah said.

He said that in the evening they took Humayun to the bus terminal in Peshawar to identify the bus, but he was unable to do so as he had not regained full consciousness. But the staffers of the transport company, New Flying Coach, told them that it was not the first incident of its kind.

Mr Ijaz, terminals manager of the New Flying Coach transport company, said it was a blessing that the life of Humayun had been saved. “Only four days back, we had to bring back a passenger to Peshawar who had taken a biscuit from a fellow passenger and had lost Rs150,000,” Ijaz said.

“We knew that if we dropped the man in Lahore, he would lie on garbage dumps as his condition was very bad,” he added.

Dr Hamid Afridi, in charge of emergency ward in LRH, said that such incidents had increased alarmingly. “We receive more than one such victim daily, sometimes six and seven a day,” he said.

He said that bandits added Organo Phosphorus - a poison - to eatables, especially biscuits and candies, which made a person unconscious in seconds. “It can even take life if the quantity of the poison exceeds a certain level,” he added.

Dr Afridi said that some innocent people had even lost their lives by accepting eatables from strangers on public transport.

A Motorway police official told this correspondent that last month the Lahore police had registered two cases of such robberies and arrested two accused who had attempted to deprive passengers of their valuables.

DSP Motorway Police Mokhtar Ali said that such incidents had increased in recent days.