Kogelregen doodde treinkapers De Punt

DE PUNT - The train hijacking at De Punt in 1977 did indeed end in a hail of bullets. This is evident from secret documents from the National Archives that de Volkskrant has reviewed. Officially, it has always been denied that the Moluccan hijackers were deliberately killed during the liberation operation. The documents show that the six killed hijackers were hit by a total of 144 bullets. According to de Volkskrant, an official memo on this subject in 1978 was kept secret, partly to protect then-Prime Minister Van Agt. Van Agt therefore calls this new information 'pungent': "I'm only learning this now. When I informed the House of Representatives in 1977, I knew nothing about this," said the former Prime Minister. When the train hijacking, which lasted 20 days, ended, six hijackers and two hostages were killed.