‘Protesters had a free run’: Women journos attacked on way to shrine

NILAKKAL (KERALA): Women journalists were heckled and their vehicles smashed as the Sabarimala temple was thrown open to women of all ages on Wednesday, with hordes of members of Hindu fringe groups besieging the road leading to the hilltop shrine, officials said. The protesters waylaid the vehicles of women reporters of two national channels on their way to Pamba from Nilakkal, the gateway to the shrine, banging and thumping on their cars, shouting that they should immediately turn back and finally forcing them out on the road. The police had to intervene to escort them to safety. A female journalist from CNN NEWS 18 was attacked and the windows of her car smashed in full view of the police, footage from the channel showed. “It was shocking that officers were there doing nothing,” the reporter, Radhika Ramaswamy, said in a broadcast by the station. “Protesters had free rein, attacking our vehicle.” Footage from CNN NEWS 18 showed police chasing protesters through dense forests near Nilakkal, an entry point to the temple about 18km away. Saritha Balan, a journalist from online publication The News Minute, was kicked by protesters while accompanying devotees trying to access the site, she told a TV channel. The camera crew of many other channels also had their vehicles vandalised.

In another incident, a woman reporter of an online media organisation was asked to get off a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus on the way to Pamba. The crowd, which virtually took control of the Nilakkal area, were seen pelting the bus with stones and attacking police vehicles parked nearby. “Nobody will be allowed to prevent anybody. We will do everything possible to implement law of the land,” said inspector general of police Manoj Abraham.