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The new Netflix series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack revisits the infamous hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft in 1999. The ordeal lasted a week, and saw nearly 200 hostages being held by five armed terrorists inside the plane, which was grounded at Kandahar. One person died, and the others were released on December 31, after the Indian authorities had agreed to the hijackers’ demands and allowed three high-ranking terrorists to be freed from Indian prisons. Since the show’s release, several people who were involved in the incident, including flight captain Devi Sharan, several passengers, and even the former R&AW chief AS Dulat, have recalled their memories of what transpired.
In an interview on the Face to Face YouTube channel, a passenger named Jeevan Bhatt recalled the mind games that the terrorists played on the hostages across seven days. He said that everybody on the aircraft, to a degree, had been affected by the Stockholm Syndrome. He also offered fact-checks about several details of the hijacking that were depicted on the show, such as the terrorists’ decision to let women and children go even before they landed in Kandahar. “They let only some women and children go, many women were left behind. They also let elderly people go, because their health couldn’t be controlled. Children can be difficult to control, so they allowed them to de-board along with their mothers,” he said in Hindi.
The passenger said that the hijacker code-named Burger was the ‘kingpin’ inside the cabin, and that their boss, who went by the code name Chief, was mostly in the cockpit. “One passenger, he was from Karol Bagh, promised the hijackers that he would get pamphlets for their cause printed and distributed across India,” Jeevan said. “They would tell us that Indian forces have committed atrocities against their sisters and daughters in Kashmir, but they won’t do the same to us because they’re good people.”
A file photo of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 that was hijacked in December 1999.
He continued, revealing another anecdote, “Everybody had Stockholm Syndrome… There was a young man, I’ve forgotten his name now, he had acute appendix pain. Uss bande ko hospitalise bhi kiya gaya Kandahar mein. De-board hua woh, kyunki uski condition achi nahi thi. Lekin jo sabse hairani wali baat thi ke woh agle din phir wapas aagaya. Uska kehna tha ke main apne logon ke beech badhiya hoon, wahan naa khidki hai na darwaze hain, kam se kam yahan apne logon ke saath toh hoon. Humein toh laga ke chhoot gaya toh bach gaya (He was hospitalised in Kandahar, but the unbelievable thing was that he returned the next day. He said that he prefers being with his people, because the conditions at the hospital were worse. We thought that he’d gotten away). He returned to India with us.”
Several passengers on board the aircraft showed signs of Stockholm Syndrome. One passenger named Pooja Kataria accepted a ‘gift’ from Burger – a shawl that she even got autographed by him after the ordeal. The flight engineer Anil Jaggia sent Burger away with a memento as well. Several other passengers participated in games and told jokes to the hijackers.
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