ABP News' investigative programme Special Task, hosted by Jagwinder Patial, is set to return with its second season from July 5. The new season opens with a four-part documentary, "IC-814 Hijack: The Seven Days That Still Haunt India', revisiting one of the country's most significant national security crises.
The documentary examines the IC-814 hijacking through the accounts of people who experienced the crisis firsthand, bringing together testimonies from passengers, crew members, negotiators and senior officials involved in the events.
A Reconstruction Of The Seven-Day Crisis
The series traces the events that began on Christmas Eve, 26 years ago, when an Indian Airlines flight carrying 179 passengers and 11 crew members departed from Kathmandu for Delhi.
Forty minutes into the journey, five armed hijackers took control of the aircraft, triggering a seven-day hostage crisis marked by political pressure, complex negotiations and difficult decisions.
Across four episodes, the documentary follows the aircraft's journey from Kathmandu to Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai and finally Kandahar, placing viewers inside the cockpit, inside the passenger cabin, within the control rooms in Delhi and inside government meetings where critical decisions were made.
Firsthand Accounts From Key Voices
The documentary features exclusive interviews with Captain Devi Sharan, members of the cabin crew, passengers who survived the hijacking, former RAW chief A.S. Dulat, former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, former Punjab DGP Sarabjit Singh, senior police officers, negotiators and key decision-makers who were directly involved in handling the crisis.
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According to the makers, the series reconstructs the events through firsthand testimony rather than dramatic recreations or speculation.
Revisiting Questions That Continue To Be Debated
Beyond recounting the hijacking, the documentary revisits several questions that continue to be discussed by policymakers, security experts and the public.
Among them are whether the aircraft could have been stopped in Amritsar, whether there were alternatives to releasing three terrorists, whether opportunities were lost during the crisis, what transpired during the negotiations in Kandahar, why there was never a comprehensive national debriefing into the incident, and what lessons were ultimately learned.
The Human Story Behind The Crisis
The series also focuses on the personal experiences of those caught in the hijacking, documenting the fear inside the aircraft, the psychological impact on passengers during the eight-day ordeal, the anguish of families waiting in India, and the efforts of the crew to keep nearly 200 people safe under extraordinary circumstances.
According to the documentary, the consequences of the decisions taken during the Kandahar negotiations extended well beyond the return of the hostages, continuing to influence debates on terrorism, hostage negotiations, national security and political decision-making.
With archival material, extensive research, rare interviews and cinematic storytelling, IC-814 Hijack: The Seven Days That Still Haunt India aims to revisit not only the hijacking itself but also the decisions that continue to shape India's security discourse years later.
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