'I like Rahul's reaction to shoe throwing': Omar

Srinagar, Jan 23: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, himself a victim of shoe-throwing incident, today said he liked the response of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to a similar attack on him. "I like Rahul's reaction to the shoe throwing 'phenko, phenko, ek aur phenko' (throw, throw one more)," Omar wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.

A shoe was hurled towards Gandhi by a youth while he was addressing an election rally near Dehradun in Uttarakhand. As security personnel and Congress supporters grabbed the youth, Rahul was heard saying "don't hit him".

The Congress leader also said that people perhaps thought he would run away if shoes were hurled at him. "....throw one more shoe," Rahul said. The shoe fell 10 meters short of the Congress general secretary and the attacker, identified as Kuldip, was immediately taken into custody.

Omar has himself been a victim of shoe throwing incident when a policeman hurled the footwear towards him while he was presiding over Independence Day Parade at Bakshi Stadium here in 2010. Though the policeman was arrested, the Chief Minister had later dropped the charges against him and ordered his release.

PTI