Lucknow, Sept. 4: The police-lawyers’ stand-off intensified today, with politicians, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee, stepping into the fray to condemn police high-handedness as well as Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Some parties demanded that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, already under fire for the poor law and order in the state, resign even as former Prime Minister Vajpayee visited his parliamentary constituency to meet advocates injured in yesterday’s caning.

A vehicular collision between the former president of the Awadh Bar Association and an army van yesterday led to traffic congestion that in turn prompted a police officer to draw out his service revolver and sparked police violence against lawyers.

An advocate was shot at in fresh violence near the civil courts this morning and at least five persons, including two policemen, were injured.

The fresh violence added to the growing anger among politicians over the “worst police excesses in recent memory”.

After visiting the advocates in hospital, Vajpayee met Mulayam Singh this evening and conveyed his anger over the “baton-wielding police let loose on gown-hugging members of the bar”.

The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party have demanded the chief minister’s resignation.

Before meeting Mulayam Singh, Vajpayee said: “Watching the advocates being brutally assaulted by the policemen, I was upset and came rushing here to see them. When I meet the chief minister, I will surely point out that the state police’s handling of the situation was dismal.”

Fresh violence broke out near the Kaiserbag area even as some advocates met the former Prime Minister at the VVIP guesthouse here. Renewed brickbatting turned the roads leading to the Kacheri area into a battleground as advocates clashed first with state roadway employees and then the police around 10.30 am.

Two Uttar Pradesh Roadways vehicles were burnt. The advocates later hit the streets, blocking Kacheri road.

The trouble began when a group of advocates tried to storm a state roadways garage near the civil court this morning. When the employees protested, the lawyers tried to force their way in, sparking a clash. Some advocates set two buses ablaze.

Later, some unidentified protesters opened fire, injuring an advocate. Police had to intervene, chasing away the brickbatting lawyers. This was the only violent incident of the day; lawyers in many districts, including Kanpur, Allahabad and Barebanki struck work.

Kamal Saxena, senior superintendent of police, Lucknow, said seven cases have been registered. Five hundred policemen and the former bar association president .P. Mishra, whose car was involved in yesterday’s collision, have been named as accused.

“It is wrong to project that only advocates were assaulted. Forty three policemen were also injured,” Saxena said.

The advocates’ anger refused to subside even though the chief minister and the Governor T.V. Rajeswar repeatedly urged them to restrain themselves. The governor visited the civil hospital this morning to meet the injured lawyers, whose numbers have touched 36.

Mulayam Singh, who ordered a probe by a retired Supreme Court judge, said his government would not spare the guilty.