‘Bhola, Shankar names used by terrorists on flight; Burger played Antakshari…,’ recalls IC 814 Kandahar hijack survivor

A survivor of IC 814 hijack has recalled her ordeal on board the fateful journey from Kathmandu to New Delhi in 1999.

Pooja Kataria from Chandigarh, who was on the flight, said that the hijackers were named Burger, Bhola and Shankar. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has used these code names of the hijackers in his Netflix series – ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack,’ triggering a row with many, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders accusing Sinha of allegedly shifting the blame away from Pakistani terrorists involved in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight.

"There were 5 terrorists on board the aircraft. Half an hour after the flight took off the terrorists declared that the flight was hijacked. We were nervous. We were asked to keep our heads down. We didn't even know we were in Kandahar. People were having panic attacks, so one of the terrorists named 'Burger', who had a friendly approach, helped people, and made them play 'Antakshari'. Terrorist 'Doctor' gave a lot of speeches on converting to Islam. There other terrorists were named 'Bhola' and ‘Shankar,’ Kataria told news agency ANI.

The controversy prompted Netflix India to issue an official statement on September 3 addressing the controversy surrounding series. The OTT platform's content head for India said that the disclaimer of the web series has been updated to ‘include the real and code names of the hijackers.’

"The series was made for entertainment purposes, I don't know why people are getting offended...Maybe the (Indian) govt could have tried a commando attack on the aircraft in Amritsar, then then it could not have flown outside India," Kataria said.

The hijackers who eventually demanded the release of three jailed terrorists –Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh, and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar– in exchange for about 150 hostages, had directed Captain Sharan to fly the aircraft to a series of locations, including Amritsar, Lahore, and Dubai. Ultimately, they forced Captain Sharan to land the plane in Kandahar, Afghanistan which was then under Taliban control.

The Netflix series adapted from the book ‘Flight into Fear: A Captain’s Story' by Captain Devi Sharan and Srinjoy Chowdhury features features Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Varma, Dia Mirza, Arvind Swamy and Dia Mirza.