Death stared at us every moment, recalls IC 814 hijacking survivor
Amid the controversy over the IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack web series, a Chandigarh-based passenger on that flight, which was hijacked on December 24, 1999, recalls how death stared at the 179 passengers every moment during the seven-day-long custody in an alien land.
“It was a harrowing experience. The web series was difficult to watch as I relived those moments. The hijackers, besides killing a passenger, threatened to convert us to Islam in Afghanistan. She said a hijacker codenamed ‘Burger’ gifted her a shawl on her birthday on December 27 during the hijacking. She was touched by the gift but says she still cannot forgive the hijackers as they were killers.
“My husband and I were returning from Kathmandu after our honeymoon in the ill-fated plane on December 24. We were scared to the bone when the plane was hijacked, thinking that our life was over,” said Pooja Kataria, who lives in Modern Housing Complex here with her husband and 23-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter.
On December 27, she begged the hijackers to release them, saying she was recently married and it was her birthday that day. “One of the hijackers, who was called ‘Burger’ by others, gifted me a shawl he was carrying and addressed me as sister. Later, when the hijacking was over, he came to me and wrote on the shawl, “To my dearest sister and her handsome husband. Burger. December 30, 1999.”
Pooja has kept the shawl along with an empty can of Pepsi and tickets of that harrowing journey. “It is still very painful. These are memories about what we went through.” ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ has triggered a row on social media over the names of the hijackers in the series. Netflix later updated its disclaimer with the real and code names of the hijackers.
On the controversy surrounding the Netflix series, Pooja said the hijackers were calling each other by Hindu names. “The web series has showcased reality,” she said, adding that hijackers had threatened to convert everyone to Islam.
