Srinagar, Aug 15: The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah on Sunday became the eight high profile dignitary to face “shoe protest.” 
 Omar joined the club of elite dignitaries this morning when a policeman hurled a shoe towards him at Bakshi Stadium here when the I-day function was on. 
 The “suspended” Head Constable Abdul Ahad Jan of Bandipore, flung a brown leather shoe at Omar, which missed hitting the Chief Minister. The shoe thrower was rounded up by security men and taken out of the Stadium. 
 As a matter of shoeing, throwing shoes, showing the sole of one's shoe or using shoes to insult are forms of protest primarily associated with the Arab world. Shoeing received recent attention after an Iraqi journalist, Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoe at then American President George Bush on December 14, 2008 at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
 On February 3, 2009 a protester threw a shoe at Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao during a speech at Cambridge University and called the Jaibao a "dictator". The shoe landed about a meter away from Jiabao and the protester, a young man, was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence. Protests had taken place about human rights and Tibet issue during his visit.
 On February 5, 2009 the Israeli ambassador to Sweden was also hit by a shoe when he was addressing an audience in Stockholm University.
 On April 7, 2009 Home Minister, P Chidambaram joined the list after a Sikh Journalist Jarnail Singh threw his shoes on him during a press conference. At the press conference, Jarnail had asked Chidambaram about the CBI “clean chit” to Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 anti–Sikh riots case.
 He felt the Home Minister had ducked the question and in reaction threw his shoe.
 After a brief detention the scribe was later released and no case was registered against him. Sikh political parties had offered Jarnail a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections but he had refused. 
 On April 26, 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faced the shoe attack during the election campaign when a computer engineering student hurled a sneaker towards him while he was addressing his first poll rally in Gujarat but it fell way short of the target. The prime minister forgave the 21-year old Hitesh Chauhan, resident of Bapunagar pursuing a computer course in a local engineering college.  Dr Singh did not want the police to register any case against the youth.
 On April 10, 2009 a retired school principal, claiming to be a Congressman hurled a shoe at Congress MP Navin Jindal, during a meeting in Kurukshetra, Haryana.
 On Aug 8, 2010, a man threw both his shoes at Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari when he was addressing a public meeting in Birmingham. The shoes landed just short of him.
 Zardari was criticized for visiting Britain while there were floods in his country. He was in the middle of his speech when an elderly man hurled both shoes at him.
 An unidentified man was later taken away from the meeting by police and security officials.

Dec 14, 2008               USA President, George Bush
Feb 3, 2009                 Chinese Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao
Feb 5, 2009                  Israeli ambassador to Sweden, Benny Degan
April 7, 2009                Home Minister, P Chidambaram
April 26, 2009              Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
April 10, 2009              Congress MP Navin Jindal
Aug 8, 2010                  Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari

Lastupdate on : Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST