‘Legalised criminal intent’: BJP slams Anubhav Sinha over non-Muslim names of terrorists in ‘Kandahar hijacking’

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday waded into the ongoing controversy over the new Netflix series “IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack” for allegedly hiding the true identities of the terrorists involved in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight in 1999. According to the BJP, it is the Left’s agenda to cover up the crimes of Pakistani terrorists through cinema.

Amit Malviya, the BJP’s IT cell chief, said the series’ filmmaker legitimised the terrorists’ criminal intentions by spreading their un-Muslim names.

“The hijackers of IC-814 were feared terrorists, who adopted aliases to hide their Muslim identity. Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimized their criminal intent by promoting their non-Muslim names. Result? Decades later, people will think that Hindus hijacked IC-814,” he said in a post on X.

The BJP leader further said that such films and serials weaken the country’s security apparatus and shift the blame on a particular community that is responsible for all the bloodshed.

“The Left’s agenda of whitewashing the crimes of Pakistani terrorists, all Muslims, served. This is the power of cinema, which the communists have been using aggressively since the 1970s. Perhaps even earlier. This will not only weaken/question the security apparatus of India in the long run but also shift the blame on the religious group, which is responsible for all the bloodshed,” he added.

What is the controversy?

IC-814 The Kandahar Hijack, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Vijay Varma, Dia Mirza, Arvind Swamy and Dia Mirza, has been well received by critics. However, a section of social media users have called for a boycott of the series for allegedly hiding the real identities of the terrorists involved in the 1999 incident.

In the series, the terrorists are named Bhola, Shankar, Doctor, Burger and Chief. The series apparently hinted that the terrorists had code names. However, the hijackers were Muslims from Pakistan. This has irked many, who called it “whitewashing.”

What did MEA say?

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the hijackers were: Ibrahim Athar, Bahawalpur; Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi; Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Defence Area, Karachi; Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, Akhtar Colony, Karachi; Shakir, Sukkur city.

According to the State Department website, “…these hijackers were known to the passengers respectively as (1) Chief, (2) Doctor, (3) Burger, (4) Bhola and (5) Shankar, the names by which the hijackers invariably addressed each other…”

What happened in 1999?

On December 24, 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814, better known as IC 814, was hijacked en route from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and flown to several locations before landing in Taliban-controlled Kandahar, Afghanistan. The motive was to secure the release of Pakistani terrorists held in India – Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Masood Azhar and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. The hostage crisis, which lasted for seven days, ended after India agreed to release the three terrorists.