Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
Amid violent protests, the doors of Sabarimala temple in Kerala opened on Wednesday, 17 October, for the first time since the Supreme Court lifted the centuries-old ban on entry of women of menstrual age. However, none from the concerned age group made it to the famed hill top shrine.
Women journalists were heckled, their vehicles thrashed and young female devotees turned back as hordes of activists of Hindu fringe groups besieged the road leading to the temple, abode to Lord Ayyappa, its eternally celibate deity.
The Pathanamthitta district authorities issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC banning assembly of four or more people.
Incensed over Kerala's Left Front government's decision not to file a review plea against the Supreme Court verdict, protesters pelted police with stones. Several protesters were seen being bundled into police vehicles, while ambulances carried some to hospitals.
At least 10 people from the media, including reporters and photojournalists, were injured and equipment of several of them damaged, senior minister EP Jayarajan said.
Denouncing the attacks on media, he said cases were being registered against the suspects under sections relating to non-bailable offences.
Unfazed by the unfolding violence, Madhavi, a woman from Andhra Pradesh in her 40s, tried to trek the Sabarimala hills to reach the Lord Ayyappa temple but was forced to return to Pamba, menaced by agitated male devotees.
Both the Congress, the main opposition party in Kerala, and the BJP, which is desperately seeking to expand its footprint in the state, have lent support to the agitation against the Supreme Court verdict.
State Congress working president K Sudhakaran led his party workers in a protest at Nilackal to express solidarity with Ayyappa devotees.
An embattled Left Front government reacted sharply to the protests, with the state's religious trusts minister Kadakampally Surendran calling them "politically motivated".
The BJP rejected the allegation, saying the government was responsible for the "collapse" of law and order.
The shrine will remain open for the five-day monthly pooja during the Malayalam month of Thulam before being closed on 22 October.
'Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad' led by Pravin Togadia and the 'Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi', an outfit of devotees, have called a 24-hour-long strike starting midnight.
(With inputs from PTI)
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