'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack' controversy: I&B Ministry summons content head of Netflix
New Delhi, September 2
As the web series “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack” — detailing the 1999 hijack of an Indian Airlines plane — streamed on Netflix, the use of “pseudo names” of the Pakistan-based hijackers in the depiction has led to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting summoning the content head of Netflix.
The incident has not only turned into a political controversy, but has also led to questions around the need to have a regulatory body like the Central Board of Film Certification that okays film for release in theatres. So far, content on OTT platforms like Netflix is not okayed by a body but is under self-regulation of the content creator. However, it has a grievance addressing mechanism.
The controversy arose after several users on X alleged that the real names of the hijackers should have been used in the conversation depicted aboard the plane. Actually, the names under question match with a press release issued by the Home Ministry on January 6, 2000. It names the hijackers as Ibrahim Athar from Bahawalpur, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi and Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, all from Karachi, and Shakir from Sukkur city. The MHA had said: “To the passengers of the hijacked place, these five hijackers came to be known Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar, respectively.”
Sources said the pseudo names were then released officially as any passenger or crew of the hijacked plane who could testify would do that only on the basis of pseudo names. The real names of the hijackers were not known to the 154 on board the ill-fated flight. BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya said the hijackers acquired aliases to hide their Muslim identities. “Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimised their criminal intent by furthering their non-Muslim names. Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814,” Malviya posted on X. Mukesh Chhabra, the casting director of the series said the terrorists used “nicknames or fake names” to address one another. “They used to call each other by those fake names,” Chhabra said.
