PROTEST AT SABARIMALA
Indian police take an activist into custody as protesters rallied against a Supreme Court verdict revoking a ban on women’s entry to the Sabarimala temple in Kerala on Wednesday. —
sabarimala — Protesters opposed to the entry of women in the 10-50 age group to the Sabarimala temple clashed with police and heckled women journalists as the pilgrimage season opened on Wednesday, with no woman in that group making it to the hill shrine despite police assurances.
Shortly before the famed temple opened at 5pm, the authorities decided to clamp prohibitory orders in a 30-sq km area of the temple town on Thursday — to prevent the kind of street protests seen on Wednesday.
The temple opened for the first time after the September 28 Supreme Court ruling allowing entry of women aged between 10 and 50.
In no time, frenzied male and female crowds took over the roads leading to the temple to block women in that age group.
But contrary to expectations, no woman aged 10 to 50 was able to make it to the temple, which will remain open for five days.
There was a sit-in protest near the hallowed 18 steps leading to the sanctum santorum, with a banner reading that the traditions of the temple should be maintained.
Unfazed by violent protests, Madhavi, a gutsy woman from Andhra Pradesh in her 40s, tried to climb the Sabarimala hills to reach the Ayyappa temple but was forced to return to Pamba, menaced by agitated male devotees. She had to be escorted back by police.
Hundreds of policemen could be seen in Pamba, Nilackal and Erumeli—the important landmarks on way to Sabarimala.
Liby, a woman from Kerala’s Alappuzha, also in the “banned” age group, was prevented from proceeding to Sabarimala at Pathanamthitta bus terminal. She was escorted to safety by police.
Traditionalists opposed to the entry of women forcibly turned back a woman from Andhra Pradesh and another who tried to make it to the temple.
During the day, demonstrators clashed on four occasions at Nilackal and Pamba with the police, leaving some protesters and police personnel injured. More than a dozen protesters were arrested.
The police also detained members of the Pandalam Royal and Sabarimala temple Tantri families, including women, taking part in a protest. Their arrests triggered more protests.
A female journalist Radhika Ramaswamy from CNN NEWS 18 was attacked by protesters, who smashed the windows of the car she was travelling in view of the police, footage from the channel showed.
Footage from CNN NEWS 18 showed police chasing protesters through dense forest near Nilakkal, the main entry point to the temple, which is about 18 km further away. The protesters had been throwing stones, the channel reported. —