Men in Black- Part II

And this even as former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rushed to the city, pleading for peace and absolving lawyers of blame. The transport department employees have now threatened to go on a mass strike, threatening the law and order situation in the State.

The trouble began at around noon today when 300-odd lawyers of the Lucknow Sessions Court blocked all roads leading to the Sessions and High Court. The lawyers objected to the entry and exit of buses from the Awadh bus depot next to the Sessions Court. When the depot officials refused to concede, irate lawyers broke the windows of a bus.

The lawyers then entered the depot. Some of them pulled out their licensed guns in an attempt to blow up the diesel tank inside the depot, and threatened to burn all the buses parked there. Many depot officials were attacked and suffered serious injuries. Witnesses said a conductor then whipped out his pistol and shot at a lawyer, Shri Tiwari, in his chest. He was rushed to hospital. Later in the day, the police spokesman claimed that Tiwari had been shot at by Aliganj-based Shiv Kumar and that the depot staff were not involved.

‘‘A case of attempt to murder has been lodged. Advocate Tiwari also has a criminal background. An attempt to murder case was registered against him two months ago when he shot at Shiv Kumar. Tiwari has six criminal cases against him and was also booked under the UP Gangsters Act. He registered himself as a lawyer just three months back,’’ said the spokesman.

While the road between the Awadh depot and the court was converted into a battlefield for an hour, not a single policeman intervened. ‘‘The lawyers were trying to provoke the men in khaki,’’ said SSP Kamal Saksena. And when the police, including Saksena and DM Aradhana Shukla, reached the spot, they were pelted with stones by the lawyers.