15 Kashmir cops suspended after shoe attack on Omar

SRINAGAR - Fifteen personnel of the Jammu and Kashmir security wing have been suspended after a shoe was flung at Chief Minister Omar Abdullah during the Independence Day function at the Bakshi Stadium here Sunday.

“Fifteen personnel of the Jammu and Kashmir security wing, including four officers and eleven lower rank policemen, have been placed under suspension in connection with the lapse that occurred here today (Sunday) when a suspended head constable of the state police managed to seat himself in the VIP enclosure of Bakshi Stadium from where he flung a shoe at the chief minister”, a senior police officer said here.

The security wing of the local police was entrusted with access control duties at the Bakshi Stadium where Abdullah unfurled the national flag and took the salute at the parade.

Abdul Ahad Jan threw a brown shoe at the chief minister and shouted pro-freedom slogans before he was overpowered and forcibly taken away by security personnel.

The shoe landed on the grassy ground in front of Abdullah, without grazing anyone.

Later, Abdullah said light-heartedly that it was better to throw shoes instead of stones as this would not hurt anybody.

“This is a better way of showing protest,” Abdullah said in Urdu.

Senior police officers here confirmed Jan had been earlier suspended for his criminal involvement and an FIR was already under investigation against him in a local police station here.