Biman made a mess of baggage handling, say Hajj pilgrims

Hajj pilgrims, who found their baggage missing on arrival at the airport in Dhaka, have blamed national carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines for similar negligence even in Saudi Arabia.

Some of the pilgrims, who returned home recently, said there was no Biman staff at its baggage centres in Makkah and Madina.

As a result, employees of agencies manning them are committing irregularities, they alleged.

Like last year, this year, too, Biman has set up three such centres in the two places for Bangladeshi pilgrims’ benefit.

The flag carrier has hired Saudi agents to run them. They are supposed to track and deliver the luggage of the arriving pilgrims.

“There is no Biman representative to oversee how the baggage is brought and delivered,” a pilgrim who has just returned told bdnews24.com.

“The agency employees are taking advantage of that. They are passing excess baggage in exchange for bribes. I know of a person who managed to pass 10 bags weighing 30, 40 and 50 kilograms simply by paying 10 Saudi Riyals,” the pilgrim said, preferring anonymity.

The irregularities were more pronounced in Medina than in Makkah, said another pilgrim, who also asked not to be named.

“There is no one from Biman to supervise. Handling agents are making illegal money because of this. If you are willing to pay bribe you are allowed to take baggage of any weight.”

Most of the employees of the Saudi agent hired by Biman are Indians, said the pilgrim.

A Biman official told bdnews24.com on condition of anonymity: “Last year, a Biman security officer was there to monitor the operations. This year there is nobody. As a result, there has been this problem.”

But Biman spokesperson Mazharul Islam, however, dismissed the allegations. “I don’t think they are true.”

“The agent has been appointed to smoothen luggage operations. Perhaps money has been charged because someone had extra luggage. The person who is complaining of wrongdoing may be under a wrong notion.”

This year, Biman had fixed 40kg as the maximum luggage weight a pilgrim could carry.

Several pilgrims complained of not getting their luggage on arrival in Dhaka. Biman pointed to the Jeddah airport authorities for the lapse.

Biman Public Relations Officer Tasnim Aktar earlier told bdnews24.com: “Jeddah airport authorities take a long time in checking our passengers. This time, they were taking longer because of the crane accident and the Mina tragedy. Luggage loading was also being considerably delayed.”

This year’s Hajj was marred by two deadly incidents which killed nearly 900 pilgrims, including 79 from Bangladesh.

Though Saudi authorities put the death toll of the Sep 24 stampede in Mina at 769, Iran claims thousands had died.

At least 934 were also injured in the incident which occurred when the pilgrims were heading to Jamarat for the ‘stoning of the devil’ ritual.

On Sep 11, when pilgrims from across the world were gathering at Makkah for the Hajj, a crane crashed into the Masjid al Haram (Grand Mosque) killing 117 pilgrims, including one Bangladeshi, dead.