Woman activist transferred

Activist Rehana Fathima, who tried to enter the Ayyappa Temple in Sabarimala, Kerala, has been transferred to the Palarivattom telephone exchange in the city where public contact is not required, sources have said.

The temple has been at the centre of a raging controversy since September 28, when the Supreme Court of India lifted a centuriesold ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine. A section of Hindu devotees has been protesting the decision.

Fathima, a telecom technician working in BSNLs’s customer relations section at the Boat Jetty branch in Kochi, was transferred to the telephone exchange on Tuesday, the sources said.

On Tuesday, the Sabarimala Karma Samithi group organised a protest march to the Palarivattom BSNL office, seeking her expulsion.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Muslim Jama’ath Council said it had expelled Fathima from the Muslim community for “hurting [the] sentiments of hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees”.

The activist’s house was allegedly vandalised by unidentified people while she was away trying to climb the hills last Friday.

Fathima, a model and activist who was part of the ‘Kiss of Love’ movement in Kochi in 2014 against alleged moral policing, was among the two women who had reached the hilltop, but had to return before reaching the sanctum sanctorum following massive protests by Ayyappa devotees. charge to the TDB, and that it had reaffirmed that the customs at the temple would be continued without change. “We have only asked that these customs be followed,” Varma said.

Taking an indirect dig at the state government, he said the relationship between the Sabarimala temple and the former royal family was not one that changed after every five years, referring to the five-year terms that state governments get for each term in power. Varma said his family were “hurt” at Vijayan’s statements.