Government will not ban IC 814 series! Netflix’s content head reached the ministry and got advice

The controversy over Anubhav Sinha’s web series ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’ is increasing. There is a hue and cry on social media over showing Hindu names of terrorists in the show. A PIL has been filed in the Delhi High Court to ban the series, while in the midst of all this, Monica Shergill, India Content Head of OTT platform Netflix, reached the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for a meeting on Tuesday. She was summoned by the ministry on Monday. However, in the midst of all this, a report has said that the government has no intention of banning ‘IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack’. Rather, the OTT platform will be warned to always be cautious about religious sentiments and always take special care of it.

The series ‘IC-814: The Kandahar Hijack’ is based on the hijacking of the plane in 1999. The code names of the Pakistani terrorists who hijacked the plane are Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola and Shankar.

After the hijack, the names ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’ are also there in the government statement

Interestingly, a Home Ministry statement dated January 6, 2000, available on the website of the Ministry of External Affairs, shows that the names of the terrorists mentioned in the series are the same as those revealed by the government at that time. In the Home Ministry statement after the hijacking, the code names of the hijackers were ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’. These were said to be the code names used by the hijackers of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist group. However, now many people, including BJP leaders, have objected to the code names Shankar and Bhola.

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Government’s advice to Netflix – take care of religious sentiments

The Indian Express quoted sources in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as saying that Netflix representatives have been told that they should keep in mind the religious sentiments and sensitivities of the public. The government has no immediate intention to ban this web series. But Netflix officials, including its content head, have been asked to find a way to calm the controversy. It is believed that the ministry may also summon the producer-director of the web series, Anubhav Sinha.

PIL filed in Delhi HC to ban Vijay Verma’s ‘IC814: The Kandahar Hijack’, ‘Bhola’ and ‘Shankar’ became the reason

There is uproar on social media, even BJP leaders are demanding ban

Meanwhile, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya said the hijackers were dreaded terrorists who had adopted fake names to hide their Muslim identity. he/she wrote on Twitter (now X), “Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha legitimises their criminal intent by promoting non-Muslim names in his/her series. Decades later, people will think Hindus hijacked IC-814.”

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Omar Abdullah mentioned ‘The Kashmir Files’

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said it was interesting to see people who believed films like “The Kashmir Files” to be true getting “confused” by the way the events of “IC-814” were depicted. “Now all of a sudden these people want to add accuracy and nuances to the script,” Abdullah said on X.

The hijacking happened on 24 December 1999, 180 passengers were on board

For information, let us tell you that the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Delhi was hijacked on 24 December 1999. It was first taken to Amritsar, then Lahore and Dubai and then to Kandahar in Afghanistan. This hijacking ended after 7 days through negotiations. The then BJP government had to release three terrorists in exchange for the 180 passengers on board the plane. One of these passengers died later.