Dadri lynching: IAF mulls moving personnel's family

New Delhi, Oct 3: Terming as "unfortunate" the lynching of a serving air warrior's father over rumours of eating beef, IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha said they are looking at the possibility of moving the family to an Air Force area.

Asserting that such acts cannot be accepted, Raha said senior officers were in touch with Corporal Mohammad Sartaj and his family.

"Unfortunate incident or accident I would say. It is unfortunate that a serving air force personnel's family has been affected resulting in death in the family. We are already in touch," he said today, replying to questions at his annual press conference ahead of Air Force Day.

"Whatever protection is required, we are giving it to him. We are trying to move (them) to some Air Force area. We are with him and our people are there to assist the family," he said.

IAF sources said Sartaj is currently posted in Chennai and efforts are on to either enable the rest of the family to move there or transfer him to an area where his family can be.

Sartaj's father Iqlakh was beaten to death and his 22-year-old brother Danish was critically injured by a 200-strong mob which barged into their house on Monday night following rumours that the family had consumed beef.

Raha said he is trying to meet Sartaj himself to take care of his and the family's welfare. Asked if he would be writing to the government in this regard, Raha said, "Writing to the state government or central government, I think is superfluous because everybody has understood in the government that such things cannot be accepted.

Adequate actions are being taken at the government level, both central as well as in the state," he said. He said whenever there is a security problem concerning any armed forces personnel, the Force gets in touch with local authorities. "We write to them, we interact with them. Our local Air Force police interacts with them to provide protection to any armed forces personnel," he said.

PTI