Netflix show on India plane hijacking sparks row

A web series portraying the 1999 hijacking of an Indian passenger airliner has created controversy in the country due to the portrayal of some of the characters.
Anubhav Sinha directed the Netflix film IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack chronicles the circumstances surrounding the hijacking of a Kathmandu-Delhi flight that was flown to Taliban-controlled Kandahar to demand the release of terrorists imprisoned in India.
After eight days of discussions, the Indian government agreed to release three extremists, including Masood Azhar, in return for the passengers.
Azhar, who created the Jaish-e-Mohammad organization upon his release, has been responsible for multiple assaults in India. He has also been declared a terrorist by the UN.

KEEP READING:

Operation under way to prevent oil spill after Houthi tanker attack

Kamala Harris likely to secure significant Muslim vote in US presidential election: survey

China-US strategic communication: A right way forward

The decision to free Azhar and others is still contentious in India, with the opposition frequently criticizing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was also in office in 1999, for the action.
Now, a new series about the hijacking has generated controversy.

What is the controversy?

The six-episode miniseries is based on the book Flight Into Fear: The Captain’s Story by Devi Sharan, the hijacked plane’s captain, and journalist Srinjoy Chowdhury.
The series, which premiered last week, opens with the hijackers entering the plane at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport.

Within minutes of takeoff, the militants proclaim that the airplane, which carried 179 passengers including the five hijackers and 11 crew members, had been hijacked.

The series focuses on the interactions between the hijackers, crew, and passengers, as well as Indian government officials attempting to settle the problem.

The controversy erupted after several social media users chastised the filmmakers for presenting the hijackers as using popular Hindu names like Bhola and Shankar, despite the fact that their names were Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, and Shakir. All of them came from Pakistan.
BJP leader Amit Malviya remarked in a post on X (previously Twitter) that the producers had insured that people would “think Hindus hijacked IC-814” by adopting the hijackers’ “non-Muslim” names in the series.

A Hindu right-wing group has filed a petition in a Delhi court seeking to have the series banned. According to PTI, the appeal accuses the director of distorting fundamental facts and misrepresenting historical events.
According to many Indian media sites quoting sources, the federal government met with a top Netflix official to discuss the problem.
Netflix and India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry did not reply to the BBC’s request for comment.

What are the facts?

Many have supported the series, claiming that it is factually correct.
A declaration published by India’s home ministry in 2000 reveals that the hijackers used such identities as aliases to speak both inside and outside the plane.
“To the passengers of the hijacked place these hijackers came to be known respectively as (1) Chief, (2) Doctor, (3) Burger, (4) Bhola, and (5) Shankar, the names by which the hijackers invariably addressed one another,” according to a release.
Witnesses and journalists who covered the incident have already validated this.
Kollattu Ravikumar, a hijacking victim who worked as a merchant navy commander for a US-based company, corroborated the aliases in a Rediff news piece in 2000.

“The four hijackers who were looking over us also had a commander named Berger. Berger was the one who used to yell a lot. As Berger called them, I recognized the names of the others: Bola, Shankar, and Doctor,” he added.
This is not the first time that multinational streaming providers have faced criticism for material on their platforms in India.
In January, Netflix pulled a Tamil-language film after hard-line Hindu organizations protested to numerous parts. The cast and crew of the Amazon Prime program Tandav apologized in 2021 after being accused of disrespecting Hindu gods.