The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry has summoned the content head of Netflix India following a growing controversy surrounding the web series IC 814, which depicts the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight by Pakistan-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
The Netflix web series, directed by Anubhav Sinha, has sparked outrage on social media, with hundreds of users accusing the creators of deliberately altering the IC 814 hijackers’ names to “Bhola” and “Shankar.” The series is inspired by the book Flight Into Fear: The Captain’s Story, co-authored by Devi Sharan, the captain of the hijacked flight, and journalist Srinjoy Chowdhury.
The series portrays the harrowing events of 24 December 1999, when Indian Airlines flight IC 814, carrying 191 passengers, was hijacked shortly after taking off from Kathmandu, Nepal, en route to Delhi. The hijackers, posing as passengers, took control of the aircraft, which subsequently landed in Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai before being flown to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Under immense pressure, the Indian government, led by then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was forced to release three notorious terrorists—Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar—from Indian prisons to secure the release of the hostages. Reports indicate that Taliban authorities assisted the hijackers and the released terrorists in reaching Pakistan.
A Union Home Ministry statement from 6 January 2000 identified the hijackers as Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, and Shakir. However, the statement also noted that during the hijacking, passengers addressed these hijackers as “Chief,” “Doctor,” “Burger,” “Bhola,” and “Shankar”.
(With inputs from NDTV)
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