Netflix’s latest web series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ is embroiled in controversy, and social media platforms are full of trends such as #BoycottNetflix and #BoycottBollywood.
Netizens have accused the filmmakers of distorting history and watering down the heinous acts of the terrorists.
The IC 814 was a regular flight that ran between New Delhi and Kathmandu.
It was hijacked on December 24, 1999, by a group of five terrorists affiliated with Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
After its hijack, the plane flew to Amritsar, but the bungling by Indian agencies led to it flying again to the UAE and finally to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
The Taliban was in power in Afghanistan with help from the ISI, which made it impossible for any action by Indian security agencies.
The terrorists demanded the release of three hardcore militants who were in the custody of Indian agencies: Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar, and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, in exchange for the hostages.
The hostage crisis went on for eight days and brought the Indian Government to its knees.
The demands of the hijackers were fulfilled, and the then Indian External Minister Jaswant Singh personally escorted them to be released in Kandahar.
The hijackers also killed one of the hostages, Rupin Katyal, who was newly married and on his honeymoon with his wife when he was mortally stabbed.
His body was thrown on the tarmac of the Al Minhad Air Base, where the hijackers released 27 old and ill passengers.
Controversy Surrounds Netflix’s ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’
The controversy associated with Netflix’s ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ is that all the hijackers who were using aliases were shown in such a way as to blur the actual identities of the hijackers.
The hijackers were Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Shakir a.k.a. Rajesh Gopal Verma, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, and Ibrahim Athar, who used nicknames like Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, and Burger to address each other inside the plane.
‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’, directed by Anubhav Sinha and released on Netflix on August 29, is a dramatized retelling of the hijacking incident.
The series has a star-studded cast, including Vijay Varma, Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, and others.
However, what has irked netizens is that the series uses the names “Shankar” and “Bhola” for the hijackers, which many see as a ploy to obscure the real identities of the terrorists and their affiliations with Islamic extremist groups.
Many netizens have dubbed the series as a diabolical plot to whitewash terrorism and vilify the Hindu community by assigning Hindu names to the terrorists.
The Centre has also taken cognizance of the issue and has summoned Monika Shergill, the content head of Netflix India, to address the issue.
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