In the Indian Airlines series hijacking controversy

As mentioned in the air ticket and the identity card shown at the immigration hall of the airport, Ahmed A Sheikh, Sunny Ahmed Kazi, Syed Akhtar Syed, Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim and Rajesh Gopal Burma were directly involved in the kidnapping. The plane had 11 crew members including Captain Devi Sharan, Co-Pilot Rajinder Kumar and Engineer Anil Kumar Jaggia. Then the plane was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan via Amritsar in India, Lahore in Pakistan, Dubai in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The flight was carried out by Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, a militant group active in Indian-administered Kashmir.

After the kidnapping, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh reached Kandahar and released the passengers of the ship after 8 days after handing over the three prisoners who were in the Indian jail as per the demand of the kidnappers. One of the 179 passengers on board was killed in the hijacker's attack.

Captain Devi was highly praised for playing a role in the successful rescue of passengers. Two terrorists were standing behind me in the cockpit of the ship. Whatever I said to my co-pilot, they understood,' said Captain Devi in ​​an interview with the New York Times about the situation after the hijacking of the ship. _{Indian Airlines plane being taken to Kandahar after being hijacked. Photo: AFP}

After the hijacking, the plane was flown to Amritsar, an Indian border city with Pakistan. At first, the hijackers forced the plane to take it to the Pakistani city of Lahore. But due to lack of fuel on the one hand and Pakistan not giving permission on the other hand, the plane made an emergency landing in Amritsar .

As the hijackers pressured them to leave Indian soil, the plane took off again from Amritsar to Lahore with very little fuel. According to Captain Devi, after the ATC (Air Traffic Control) did not give permission for the plane to land in Lahore, he said that he would make a 'cash landing'. On top of that, due to the lack of fuel in the plane, Pakistan was forced to allow landing.

After refueling there, the hijacker tried to take the plane to Kabul, Afghanistan. But because there is no night landing facility in Kabul, the plane was taken to Dubai. From there, the plane was taken to Kandahar, which was under the Taliban rule at the time. After that, the kidnapper had a conversation with the representative of the Indian government . Yugnath Paudel, a diplomat from the Nepali Embassy in Pakistan, was also sent to Kandahar to help in the negotiations and to talk about the Nepali side.

Maulana Masood Azhar, Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, who were in Indian jails, were released after the deal with the kidnappers. One of them, Masood Azhar, later founded the jihadist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. The organization is said to have carried out a series of attacks in various cities in India. _{Netflix A scene from the series 'IC 814 - The Kandahar Hijack'}

Various films have been made about the plane hijacking 25 years ago and the subsequent events . Some of them were very successful and some were unknown. But recently, the public crime thriller series 'IC 814 - The Kandahar Hijack' has become very popular. Especially in South Asian countries including Nepal and India.

In addition to that, the series has also become somewhat controversial in India. "IC 814 - The Kandahar Hijack" has been drawn into controversy, especially due to the portrayal of Muslims involved in kidnapping. In the 6-episode crime thriller series, the names of the ship hijackers as 'Bhola' and 'Shankar' have sparked protests in India. In the

series, five kidnappers have been named as 'Chief', 'Doctor', 'Burger', 'Bhola' and 'Shankar'. Some have alleged that instead of keeping the real name of the kidnapper in the series, Hindu names have been deliberately chosen . Frost Post has mentioned that Indian journalist Bir Sanghvi has claimed that "the series is a propaganda work of the Pakistani spy agency ISI".

During the hijacking of the plane, the hijackers also called each other by the code names 'Chief', 'Doctor', 'Burger', 'Bhola' and 'Shankar'. In 2000, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs stated that the names of the kidnappers were Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Saeed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim and Shakir.

Amit Malviya, head of the IT cell of India's ruling party BJP, has claimed that the hijackers of IC 814 were dangerous terrorists but managed to hide their Muslim identity. "Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has legitimized their criminal intent by advancing the name of non-Muslims," ​​he wrote on social network X . "Ten years from now people will think IC-814 was hijacked by Hindus." _{Monika Sergil}

In addition, she claims that the wrong portrayal in the film has become an agenda to get rid of the crimes committed by Pakistani terrorists and all Muslims. This is the power of cinema, which the communists have been using aggressively since the 1970s. Perhaps even further from Even,' said Malaviya. With the

series falling into controversy, the Indian government has summoned the content chief of OTT platform Netflix for questioning. The Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has summoned Monica Sergill, head of content at Netflix India, for Tuesday to inquire about 'IC 814 - The Kandahar Hijack'.

Directed by Anubhav Sinha, 'IC 814 - The Kandahar Hijack' stars Nasruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Sharma, Dia Mirza, Arvind Swamy, Aditya Srivastava, Patralekha Paul, Dibyandu Bhattacharya and others. Adrian Levy and Trishant Srivastava have written the story of the series based on the book 'Flight into Fear: The Captain's Story' written by Devi Sharan, the captain of the hijacked plane and journalist Srinjoy Chaudhary. The series was released on OTT platform Netflix on August 29.

(with the help of agencies)