Indian authorities in the southern state of Tamil Nadu has issued a shoot-at-sight order to police after violent protests by lawyers led to serious damages including the burning of a police station, Xihnua reported.
A release Friday night from the Director-General of Police in Chennai, capital Tamil Nadu, authorized the District Superintendents of Police to use gunfire against those trying to damage public properties and create disturbance to general public.
"Appropriate action would be taken against those who trying to damage vehicles or involve in other illegal activities," it said. "Some anti-social elements were using Thursday's incidents to damage public property and burn vehicles."
Tamil Nadu's lawyers have been staging protests for days against Indian government policy in Sri Lanka. They urged the government to intervene in the neighbor country's conflict to rescue thousands of Tamil civilians trapped in the war zone. The lawyers in Tamil Nadu are also sympathetic with the cause of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels cornered by government forces of Sri Lanka.
Violence broke out Thursday over the arrest of some lawyers accused of assaulting the opposition BJP party president Subramanian Swamy in a court.
Among those injured were a judge, and more than 50 police personnel and lawyers in the clash at the premises of the Madras High Court in Chennai.
Authorities filed murder cases Friday against 150 lawyers following the violent clash at the Madras High Court.
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