Two students from China were recently assaulted by a Malaysian e-hailing driver during their trip to Kuantan.
According to China Press, Yuan, a 22-year-old international student from Hebei, China who had been studying at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) for three years, said that she and a female friend went for a two-day trip to Kuantan last Friday (Dec 15).
After their visit to the Kuantan 188 Tower, the two women decided to return to their hotel in Kuantan to pick up their travel luggage on Saturday.
However as soon as they got out of the e-hailing vehicle, the driver attacked them with a tripod which led to Yuan’s right index finger to break and she also fractured her middle finger.
Understandably in shock after the attack, the women were worried that the e-hailing driver would return and opted to take a bus back to Kuala Lumpur.
“My whole fingers were swollen and my right hand was in great pain. However, I was too scared to stay in Kuantan.
“I had to rush back to Kuala Lumpur and then went to Tung Shin Hospital for an injury examination.”
Yuan disclosed that in all her three years that she has resided in Malaysia, she had travelled all over Peninsula Malaysia and covered states such as Penang and Ipoh but it was her first time being attacked in Kuantan.
She also added that she suspected that the attack was caused by her closing the vehicle door too hard.
On 17 Dec, the e-hailing company informed Yuan that they had suspended the account of the e-hailing driver that attacked the two women.
But that wasn’t the last of the incident, 10 minutes later, she received several phone calls allegedly from the driver.
“I believe the driver made those calls to intimidate me as he was angry about having his account suspended by Grab,” she said.
Teruntum assemblyman Sim Chon Siang who helped Yuan in lodging the police report, said that the Pahang state government will be paying her medical bills and called for the police to bring the driver to justice as soon as possible.
“No matter what form of conflict or dissatisfaction there is, the e-hailing driver should not escalate the matter to the point of using force to beat others,” said Sim.
