Pakistan-based terror outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 in 1999 demanding the release of hardcore terrorists Maulana Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar
Netflix series 'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack' is in the eye of the storm for using Hindu names for the hijackers instead of their real Muslim names. However, the names were actually used by the hijackers, and not invented by the director, Anubhav Sinha.
Indian Airlines Flight 814, famously known as IC 814, was going from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
Captain Devi Sharan, First Officer Rajinder Kumar and flight engineer Anil Kumar Jaggia were in charge of the flight, which had 154 passengers.
On December 24, 1999, five Pakistani terrorists - Ibrahim Athar, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Zahoor Ibrahim Mistry, Shahid Akhtar Sayed and Shakir (R.G. Verma) - boarded the aircraft.
Their main objective was the release of Pakistani terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar, who was in Indian jail for more than four years.
The terrorists made pit-stops in Amritsar, Lahore and Dubai, before reaching their destination – Kabul – on December 25.
The negotiations went on for days, with the passengers being finally released on December 31.
The hijackers attacked several passengers, with one person - Rupin Katyal – losing his life.
On December 31, then foreign minister Jaswant Singh flew to Kandahar with the three terrorists Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar.