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Brawl Over Fare

Biman staff beats up passenger

Staff Correspondent
In a display of sheer audacity, a Biman staff assaulted a female at Motijheel Sales Office in the capital yesterday following a brawl over his demand for additional money for ticket confirmation.
Tipped-off, Motijheel police rushed to the Biman office, rescued a bleeding Rubi Haque and took her to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where she was given first-aid.
Rubi said she had gone to the Biman office with her sister and brother to confirm three tickets of yesterday's Kuala Lumpur flight, but Biman staff demanded an additional amount of Tk 14,000 for each ticket. “As we protested the demand, a Biman staff asked us to give some money and settle the matter," she said, adding that when she doggedly continued protesting "the illegal demand", a Biman official threatened to drive her out of the office by security guards.
At one stage, Biman's Commercial Assistant Hafizur Rahman struck her on the head with an iron chair around 2:45pm.
Rubi said she is a cancer patient and had an appointment with doctors at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore today. She was supposed to fly to Singapore from Kuala Lumpur.
She filed a case with Motijheel Police Station, accusing Biman staff Hafizur, Abdul Hannan and five to six others of beating her up.
Police arrested Hafizur following the complaint.
Biman's Security Supervisor Saiftil Islam, who conducted an initial investigation into the incident, however, said Rubi along with two others had requested the airlines staff to confirm a ticket so that she could fly to Malaysia yesterday.
"As there was no low-fare seat available for today's [yesterday's] flight, a Biman staff told her that she could only fly if she paid an additional amount to get a seat available on higher fare segment," he said.
The Biman staff even wanted to provide her with a money receipt for the additional amount, but the passenger began scolding the staff and termed all Biman staff corrupt.
Biman's acting managing director AM Mosaddique Ahmed said Hafizur had committed an atrocious act.
"We've already suspended him and will launch an investigation and take tough action against him if he is found guilty," he said.
He, however, said the authority in an initial investigation had not found anyone guilty of demanding bribes.
The airline's prime duty is to ensure customer service, but the incident suggests that it is doing the opposite, said Aviation analyst Kazi Wahidul Alam.
An additional payment had been asked for, maybe because seats were available only of the higher fare segment, but Biman staff should have briefed the passenger on the matter.
Wahidul went on to say that the passenger might have become furious as there was a wide perception that whenever anyone went to purchase tickets they were told that there was no seat, but during their travels they found many seats vacant.