Cop who hurled shoe at Omar saved IG life

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Srinagar, Aug. 15: A Jammu and Kashmir police official on Sunday hurled his shoe at the Chief Minister, Mr Omar Abdullah, during the Independence Day function at Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium.

The shoe flung from a back row of the VIP pavilion did not hit the CM but fell on the ground near the podium on which Mr Abdullah was standing to unfurl the tricolour.

Plainclothesmen and the chief minister’s security detail swiftly overpowered the shoe-thrower later identified as head-constable Abdul Ahad Jan who also reportedly flashed a black flag and yelled some offensive words before being whisked away from scene.

The CM later in his customary Independence Day speech said that this was a better way of giving vent to anger than hurling rocks.

A government statement identified him as “Mr Abdul Ahad Jan, a suspended head constable — reportedly mentally unsound — and facing charges in a criminal case under FIR No:123 dated May 21, 2010 registered against him in Parimpora Police Station, Srinagar.”

However, Jan’s son, Mr Shakeel Ahmed, denied his father was suffering from any psychiatric illness.

“He is perfectly alright but disturbed as his promotion in lieu of saving the life of a deputy inspector-general of police in a bomb explosion a few years ago has been withheld for unknown reasons,” he told reporters.

Jan’s brother, Mr Sannaullah Jan questioned the police claim that the shoe-thrower had been placed under suspension in May. “He was paid his monthly salary only yesterday and left home for duty this morning,” he said.

Meanwhile, 15 policemen of J&K police’s security wing including a deputy superintendent and four other officials have been suspended on charge of dereliction in duty even as the police authorities claimed that the shoe-thrower had gained entry into the stadium using a pass issued to the leader of a political party who had approached him earlier.

They, however, refused to divulge the name of the politician or the political party.