‘Whitewashing crimes of Pakistani…’ BJP slams ’IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ makers for concealing Muslim names

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has jumped into the controversy over the Netflix series – ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ – for allegedly shifting the blame away from Pakistani terrorists involved in the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight. 

The party accuses series director Anubhav Sinha of ‘legitimising’ the criminal intent of terrorists, by furthering their non-Muslim names.

'The hijackers of IC-814 were dreaded terrorists, who acquired aliases to hide their Muslim identities. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, legitimised their criminal intent, by furthering their non-Muslim names. Result? Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814," BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya said in a post on X.

Directed by Sinha, ‘IC-814 The Kandahar Hijack,’ is based on the 1999 hijacking of an Indian aircraft. The hijacking took place on December 24, 1999 after the plane took off from Kathmandu, Nepal. The series was released on Netflix on August 29.

The series which features Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Varma, Dia Mirza, Arvind Swamy and Dia Mirza has been facing online criticism and boycott calls for allegedly hiding the real identities of the terrorists involved in the incident.

‘Left agenda to whitewash crimes’

In the series, the codenames Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger and Chief have been used for the five hijackers which has irked those criticising it.

“Left’s agenda to whitewash the crimes of Pakistani terrorists, all Muslims, served. This is the power of cinema, which the Communists have been using aggressively, since the 70s. Perhaps even earlier,” Malviya said.

In the incident, the hijackers – Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhter, and Sayed Shakir – had taken control of the plane on its way from Kathmandu to Delhi. The crisis ended with the release of three terrorists – Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh, and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar – in exchange for about 150 hostages.

“This will not just weaken / put in question India’s security apparatus in the long run, but also shift the blame away from the religious cohort, that is responsible for all the bloodshed,” Malviya pointed out.

‘Used fake names’

Series casting director, Mukesh Chhabra, however, defended using codenames for hijackers.

"I am reading so many tweets about the names of the hijackers. We did the proper research. They used to call each other by those names—nicknames or fake names, whatever you want to call them. And thank you, everyone, for loving the ensemble cast. A big thank you to my team, and especially to Anubhav Sinha for trusting us and giving me the freedom to explore," he wrote on X.