Fresh clashes erupt in deadly India temple row
TH I RU VAN ANT HAP U RAM: Clashes erupted between Hindu hardliners and police in the southern state of Kerala for a second day, after two women defied traditionalists to enter one of India’s holiest temples.
Violence across Kerala on Wednesday left one person dead and 15 injured after news spread that the two women, escorted by police and dressed in black, had sneaked into the Sabarimala temple and prayed before dawn.
This was the first time that women of menstruating age – deemed as those aged between 10 and 50 – had set foot in the gold-plated temple, located on a hilltop in a tiger reserve, since India’s Supreme Court overturned a ban in September.
Thousands of Hindu devotees, many of them female, had previously succeeded in preventing women from accessing the site in the weeks after the ruling, with some hardliners throwing stones at police and assaulting female journalists.
On Tuesday, tens of thousands of women, in a local government-backed initiative, braved harassment to form a huge human chain called the “Women’s Wall” across Kerala to back the demand for access to the temple.
Kerala police said the man who died on Wednesday was part of a demonstration organised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – not part of Kerala’s state government – in the town of Pandalam and was hit by stones thrown at protesters.
“His injuries were serious and he died late on Wednesday night. At least 15 others were injured in incidents across the state,” police spokesman Pramod Kumar said yesterday.
Police on Wednesday had used tear gas, stun grenades and water cannon after demonstrations turned violent and clashes broke out between rival groups, including outside the state parliament in the capital Thiruvananthapuram.
Journalists were also assaulted during the disturbances in Thiruvananthapuram and the nearby city of Kollam.
Kerala remained tense yesterday, with additional riot police deployed and four stabbed in clashes across the state, media reports said.
Journalists were assaulted in the city of Palakkad during a march organised by the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a hardline Hindu group and ideological mentor of Modi’s party. — AFP