IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack sparks controversy
There is a demand for boycott of IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack on social media. This series directed by Anubhav Sinha is based on the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814. Which was recently streamed on Netflix. Actors like Vijay Verma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor, Dia Mirza and Arvind Swami are in lead roles in the series. A controversy has erupted on social media regarding the series directed by Anubhav Sinha. The reason for this controversy is the names of the hijackers in the series, due to which this entire controversy has heated up. This series is based on the Kandahar hijack of 24 December 1999, in which the story of the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane IC 814 is shown.
Story of IC 814 hijacking
On 24 December 1999, Indian Airlines flight IC 814, which took off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, was hijacked by five terrorists. The hijackers landed it in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The series shows the hijackers being referred to by names like Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar, which has sparked controversy on social media.
What were the real names of the terrorists?
In fact, the names of the terrorists of the terrorist organization Harkat-ul-Mujahideen who hijacked the plane were – Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Saeed, Sunny, Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Mistry and Shakir. These terrorists had hijacked the flight demanding the release of Pakistani terrorists – Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, who are imprisoned in India. However, after the streaming of the series, a controversy has erupted on social media. The makers are facing criticism on social media for hiding the crimes of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, and giving a human form to the brutal terrorists. Many users have alleged that the makers have deliberately changed the religion of the hijackers.
What did internet users say?
An internet user wrote on X, “The original names of the Kandahar plane hijackers are Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar, Sunny Ahmed, Zahoor Mistry and Shakir. In Anubhav Sinha’s web series ‘IC 814’, the hijackers are shown as Bhola, Shankar. This is how whitewashing is done cinematically.” Another wrote, “The hijackers of IC 814 were deadly, cruel but it is not right to even try to show them as human in the Netflix series.”
Social media users angry over names of terrorists
The third one wrote, “I also noticed this and was very surprised. This is not a good thing to do. I wonder how the Netflix team could be so careless, how was this allowed to happen.” However, according to the Ministry of External Affairs report of January 2000, Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar were the code names of these terrorists. These were the names by which the hijackers always addressed each other. Apart from this, writer-lyricist Neelesh Mishra, who wrote the book ‘173 Hours in Captivity: The Hijacking of IC814’, clarified on X that – “Shankar, Bhola, Burger, Doctor were false names of the hijackers. Which they had kept to hide their identity.”