15 police suspended over lax security after constable threw shoe at Indian Kashmir official

15 police suspended for security breach in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India — Fifteen police officials have been suspended after an off-duty constable flung a shoe at Indian-controlled Kashmir’s top elected official during India’s independence day ceremony, police said Monday.

Constable Abdul Ahad Jan was in the high-security gallery of top officials and ministers when he hurled a shoe at Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in the highly guarded soccer stadium that was the venue for Sunday’s ceremony in Srinagar, the region’s main city.

He also threw a black flag toward Abdullah while shouting, “We want freedom.” Neither item hit Abdullah.

Jan was immediately arrested. Authorities later said he was mentally unstable and had been suspended from work in May.

“It was a major security breach and we’re probing how he managed to sit in the top officials gallery,” said a police officer on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak with media.

The officer said 15 police were suspended for lax security that allowed Jan to enter the stadium. Four are mid-ranked sub inspectors who were the immediate supervisors at the venue, and 11 are constables, the lowest-ranked officers who frisked people, checked passes and conducted other security actions.

Afterward, thousands of people shouted pro-independence slogans in a show of support outside Jan’s house in his native village. They showered flowers on Jan’s wife and young men played musical instruments, local newspapers reported Monday.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the portion of Kashmir it controls, with most people favoring independence from India or a merger with Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of Kashmiris have participated in defiant protests against India’s rule over the predominantly Muslim region in last two months.

At least 57 people have died in the civil unrest since June that hasn’t abated despite the deployment of thousands of troops and calls for calm from India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The recent violence has been reminiscent of the late 1980s, when protests against New Delhi’s rule sparked an Islamic insurgency. The armed conflict has so far killed more than 68,000 people, mostly civilians.

Separatists says they will continue protesting during the current Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

On Monday, thousands of armed police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled nearly deserted streets in Srinagar and other major towns and enforced a strict curfew in most of the region. Troops laid razor wire and erected steel barricades to block access to downtown.