‘Dad had firm faith in his village’

Young Sartaj wanted to go for higher studies and start a business so that he can give his father Ikhlaq, a blacksmith, a comfortable life.

But Ikhlaq wanted his son to join the defence forces so that he can serve his country. In 2008, Ikhlaq’s dream came true when Sartaj joined the Indian Air Force.

Today, IAF corporal Sartaj remembers his father’s unflinching faith in the harmony and brotherhood in the Bisada village where a mob lynched him on suspicion of cow slaughter. “Whenever I asked my father to shift out of Bisada, he would say the village was his family. My three uncles left Bisada many years ago and built houses in nearby towns like Dadri and Loni in Ghaziabad. But my father stayed back,” said Sartaj.

The incident has left Sartaj shaken but, he said, he has full faith in the judiciary and that he will get justice for his father.

“I will continue to serve my country to fulfil my dead father’s dream. I have full faith in the judiciary. I know my family will get justice and I don’t think any country will be proud of such a mob, who killed a poor man over a rumour. I believe the entire nation is with me because I am serving my nation and not the mob,” said Sartaj.

Remembering his early days in the village, Sartaj said, “I used to fan the coal fire while my father would make farming equipment such as sickle. I did my schooling from the Rana Sanga Singh Inter College, located 400 metres away from our house in Bisada.” Sartaj wants his two-year-old daughter Afiya to join civil services — the dream that Ikhlaq had for his younger son Danish, who is recuperating at a Noida hospital after receiving critical injuries during the attack on his house.

“There were times when we didn’t have enough money to manage two square meals a day and I used to get very sad. It was my father who gave me strength in those trying times,” said Sartaj.