NYT scribe made to beat retreat

Women of ages hitherto barred from entering the Lord Ayyappa temple stayed away for the second day on Thursday amid a dawn-todusk shutdown called by right wing outfits.A woman journalist, who works for the New York Times, made a brave but vain attempt to trek to Sabarimala temple.

Along with a foreign national colleague, she managed to get past the Pamba gateway but was stopped midway by angry devotees who erected a human wall around her. On Wednesday, Madhavi, a 40-year-old gutsy woman from Andhra Pradesh, had made a similar attempt, but was forced to retreat.

Meanwhile, sporadic violence marked a 'hartal' called by right wing groups over Wednesday's police action.

The District Collector told the media that Section 144, which was in force in and around the temple, would continue till Friday midnight. The police would provide security to any woman who wished to go and pray at the shrine, he said. The protesters arrested on Wednesday were produced before the Magistrate and remanded to two weeks judicial custody. The arrested activists included a member of the Tantri family, Rahul Eashwar.

The temple opened on Wednesday at 5 p.m. for the first time after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling. As part of the convention, the temple opens for five days on the first of every Malayalam month. It will remain open till October 22.State BJP chief P.S. Sreedharan Pillai has blamed the Left government for the unrest. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, currently in the UAE, wrote in his Facebook post that the BJP and the RSS were trying to turn the hallowed temple into a conflict zone.