S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India, speaking on the 'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack' on Friday (September 13), said that he hadn't "watched the film" and went on to narrate an incident about the 1984 hijacking of Indian Airlines Boeing-737 and how it was related to his life.
Jaishankar, interacting with the Indian Community in Geneva, recalled the incident and said that he was part of the team that was dealing with the 1984 plane hijacking.
While addressing the gathering, he said that he rang up his mother to tell her about the hijacking and said that he then discovered that his father was on the flight that was hijacked.
S Jaishankar said that on the one hand he was part of the team "working on the hijacking" and on the other hand he was "part of the family members who were pressing the government on the hijacking."
The incident that S Jaishankar referred to took place on August 26, 1984, when 12 pro-Khalistani hijackers who hijakced the Indian Airlines Boeing-737 surrendered in the UAE.
All the 68 passengers were unharmed and the six crew members too were safe. The surrender took place after close to 38 hours after the flight was seized over Pathankot.
What Is The Controversy Over IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack?
'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack', a series on Netflix, ran into controversy after several handles on social media platform X objected to Hindu names used as aliases by Pakistani terrorists involved in the hijacking. Subsequently, the govt took notice of the issue and Netflix and the makes of the series were asked to put up a disclaimer.
What Happened With IC-814 Plane?
Five terrorists hijacked the IC-814 plane from Kathmandu to Delhi on December 24, 1999 during its flight. At least 154 passengers and crew were held hostage for eight days. The stand-off ended after terrorists Masood Azhar, Omar Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar were released. The then external affairs minister Jaswant Singh took them on a special plane to Kandahar.
