Lawyers in Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region on Monday boycotted the courts to protest attacks on them by activists of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Acting on an appeal by the Telangana lawyers' Joint Action Committee, the lawyers did not attend work in the High Court and other courts, demanding the arrest of TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu and TDP activists involved in the attack.
Raising anti-TDP slogans, the lawyers staged a protest on the road outside the High Court, leading to a traffic jam. They also demanded that Naidu tender an apology to the lawyers.
Similar protests were held in other courts in Hyderabad and in nine other Telangana districts.
Seven lawyers were injured when TDP workers attacked them for disrupting Naidu's speech at a protest programme organised against price rise by TDP and Left parties at Indira Park Hyderabad on Saturday.
The pro-Telangana lawyers were demanding that Naidu make his stand clear on the issue of a separate Telangana state. Naidu rejected the demand for an apology. His party alleged that the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) had instigated the lawyers against Naidu.
Police registered cases against Naidu and TDP workers but did not arrest anybody.
Security was tightened at the NTR Trust Bhavan, the headquarters of TDP in Hyderabad and at all TDP offices in the region, in view of the threat by lawyers to lay siege to the party offices.
{{/usCountry}}Security was tightened at the NTR Trust Bhavan, the headquarters of TDP in Hyderabad and at all TDP offices in the region, in view of the threat by lawyers to lay siege to the party offices.
{{/usCountry}}"We are demanding the arrest of Chandrababu Naidu and his party workers for the attack on lawyers," G. Rajverdhan Reddy, a leader of Telangana lawyers' JAC, told reporters.