Following the release of the IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, a post is doing the rounds on social media platforms claiming that the attackers were misidentified in the television series.
What have users said?: X (formerly Twitter) user Rishi Bagree, who has been previously called out for spreading misinformation, shared a post sharing the original names of the hijackers.
He then claimed that the television series depicted the hijackers as 'Bhola' and 'Shankar'.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/ Screenshot)
Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) IT Cell in-charge Amit Malviya – who has previously been caught peddling disinformation also shared a similar claim.
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X/ Screenshot)
This post received significant traction on the platform with over a million views. You can view archives of similar posts here, here, and here.
What is the truth?: The viral claim lacks proper context.
The five hijackers of the aircraft were identified as Ibrahim Athar, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, and Shakir.
However, these hijackers addressed one another by aliases that were found to be — Chief, Doctor, Burger, Bhola, and Shankar.
How did we find out?: On searching on Google with words "ic 814 hijackers identity government", we came across a statement given by the then Union Home Minister on 6 January 2000.
The statement said that the Mumbai Police, with the help of central intelligence agencies, had nabbed four ISI operatives. These operatives acted as the support cell for the hijackers.
It mentioned that all four of them were activists of the terrorist organisation Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA). They were identified as Mohammed Rehan, Mohammed Iqbal, Yasuf Nepali, and Abdul Latif.
The statement also carried the name of the hijackers and were identified as: Sunny Ahmed Qazi, Shakir aka Rajesh Gopal Verma, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, and Ibrahim Athar.
It further said, "To the passengers of the hijacked place these hijackers came to be known respectively as (1) Chief, (2) Doctor, (3) Burger, (4) Bhola and (5) Shankar, the names by which the hijackers invariably addressed one another."
The statement was given on 6 January 2020.
Passengers' accounts: Team WebQoof found articles published in multiple news platforms, such as Los Angeles Times and Rediff which carried the experience of the passengers of the hijacked aircraft.
The first article carried the code names of all five hijackers as — Chief, Bhola, Shankar, Doctor and Burger.
A passenger writing for the Rediff recounted the aliases of four hijackers as — Berger, Bola, Shankar and Doctor.
Why is the claim misleading?: While the real names of the hijackers were different, the viral claim becomes misleading as it insinuates that they were misidentified or incorrectly named. However, a closer look at the facts show that the latter names mentioned in the viral post were two hijackers' aliases.
Conclusion: It is evident that the claim is being shared without proper context.
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