“Netflix’s ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ Sparks Boycott: Were Hijackers Bhola and Shankar or Shahid and Shakir? Government Responds”
The newly released crime thriller mini-series, “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack,” directed by Anubhav Sinha, has sparked significant controversy and debate online due to its portrayal of events and alleged factual inaccuracies. The series, which recounts the harrowing hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814, has come under fire for its narrative choices, particularly its depiction of the hijackers.
The real-life hijacking involved six terrorists from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen outfit: Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Mistry, and Shakir. These men seized control of the flight, holding passengers hostage in a desperate bid to secure the release of Pakistani terrorists imprisoned in India, including Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.
Despite the dramatic and tense storyline, the series has faced backlash on social media for allegedly whitewashing the involvement of the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, and for humanizing the terrorists. Critics argue that the series misrepresents the hijackers’ identities and motivations, with some suggesting that the makers deliberately altered the religion of the hijackers to fit a different narrative.
One outraged viewer took to X (formerly Twitter) to express their frustration, writing, “Kandahar flight hijackers’ original names: Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar, Sunny Ahmed, Zahoor Mistry, and Shakir. Anubhav Sinha’s series ‘IC 814’ depicted them as Bhola, Shankar. This is how whitewashing is done cinematically.” Another user echoed these sentiments, saying, “The hijackers of IC 814 were lethal, cruelâto even attempt to show some of them as human in the Netflix series is unfair.”
However, the series’ portrayal of the hijackers’ names isn’t entirely without precedent. According to a Ministry of External Affairs report from January 2000, the hijackers were known to refer to each other by code names: Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola, and Shankar. This practice of using aliases was noted during the hijacking ordeal.
Adding to the discourse, journalist and author Neelesh Misra, who penned the book “173 Hours in Captivity: The Hijacking of IC 814,” weighed in on the controversy. Misra clarified on X, “Shankar, Bhola, Burger, Doctor, and the Chief, the brother of then-jailed Masood Azhar himself. All the hijackers assumed false names. That is how they referred to each other and how the passengers referred to them throughout the hijacking. Regards, the author of the first book on the IC-814 hijacking.”
As debates continue to rage online, “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack” remains a contentious piece of entertainment, illustrating the challenges and responsibilities of portraying real-life events in dramatic storytelling.
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Author:- Apoorva Arora