[PotatoHeadMick]

I think you are being very hard on the Indian policemen in the station, they were basically railway cops who as the article makes clear have not been trained how to use the rifles nor in all probability even had any ammunition, kinda difficult to shoot someone if you’ve no bullets.

[backhoe]

You go in the killfile.

[PowderMonkey]

"...kinda difficult to shoot someone if you’ve no bullets."

You nailed it. I've been to that part of the world many times, and have been provided with official "armed" escorts only to find they couldn't afford ammunition, or were not trusted with it. On one visit the escort consisted of three local police officers. Two carried lahti sticks. The third carried an Enfield rifle chained to his body (no ammo), in the event terrorists killed him in an attempt to steal the rifle. While in the Congo, one of my escorts consisted of a Congolese Army Sergeant armed with an Uzi...but he had to share its magazine with two other guys. So most of the time he simply used it to intimidate locals unfamiliar with such details as empty or missing magazines.