[2][3] On the evening of 7 July 1987, the attackers drove a jeep hired from Hanumangarh in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan.
[2] The hijackers started driving the bus slowly towards Fatehabad, and told the passengers to hand over their cash and valuables.
Around 2 km later, they stopped the bus near Dariyapur (or Daryapur) village, where they opened fire at the passengers, and left the scene.
In both incidents, the attackers used another vehicle to block and stop the bus: this tactic had not been used in the earlier similar killings in the Punjab-Haryana area.
Protest strikes affected Chandigarh, Shimla, and many other towns in Punjab, Haryana, and the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi described the incident as "inhuman butchery" and declared that it would strengthen the government's resolve to fight the extremists.