IC184 The Kandahar Hijack is the re-telling of the infamous incident in India’s defence history. It has piqued the nation’s interest and the Indian officials involved in the negotiations and the victims who were held hostage abroad on the plane are recalling the ordeal. One such passenger, Jeevan Bhatt, said in a recent chat that the hostages experienced Stockholm Syndrome during the hijack and even contributed cash for the ‘poor Afghans’.
In an interview with the Face to Face YouTube channel, Jeevan said, “Burger was the kingpin. He would come around and say, ‘You look upset, let’s sing songs and tell jokes’. Basically, everybody inside the plane was a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.
One man from Karol Bagh even promised to print pamphlets for their cause the minute he got back to India. They kept telling us about the atrocities that Indian forces had committed against Kashmiris, and said that they would never stoop to that level because they’re good people.” He continued, “You won’t believe it; they told us that people in Afghanistan are in such poor condition, and urged us to contribute money for them.
They took donations from the passengers! I think they collected around Rs 80,000. Everybody contributed. The air hostesses would walk down the aisles with bags, and we pooled in our cash.
It was around 80,000 — a big amount even back then. It was all for the poor people in Kandahar.” Jeevan Bhatt said that one hijacker also tried to preach Islam.
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