Protests against the Supreme Court verdict allowing women of all age group to enter the Sabarimala temple in Kerala turned violent on Wednesday just hours before the shrine opened for the first time after the historic judgment. The temple opened at 5pm for the five-day monthly poojas for the Malayalam month of Thulam.
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Police caned the protesters at Nilakkal and Pamba, the base camps of the hill shrine, after the agitators pelted stones at vehicles including buses carrying devotees to the temple. Three policemen and five protesters have been seriously injured.
Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran held the BJP and the RSS responsible for the violence. Attack on women and journalists would not be tolerated, he said.
Earlier, Ayyappa Dharmasena president Rahul Easwar was detained at Sannidhanam, the temple complex. Rahul has been mobilising support from lakhs of Ayyappa devotees to spearhead an agitation against the verdict.
Rahul's arrest came after a woman devotee from Andhra Pradesh was forced to return midway by the protesters. Unfazed by violent protests, Madhavi, a gutsy woman from Andhra Pradesh in her 40s, tried to climb the hills to reach the Lord Ayyappa temple but was forced to return to Pamba, menaced by agitated male devotees. She had to be escorted back by police.
Liby, a woman from Kerala's Alappuzha, was prevented from proceeding to Sabarimala at Pathanamthitta bus terminal. She was escorted to safety by police.
Earlier several media personnel, who were at Nilakkal and Pamba to cover the developments, were injured in the violent clash. Three female journalists—one each from The News Minute, News18 and Republic TV—were attacked by protesting devotees. A reporter of news agency ANI was also attacked.
The Supreme Court on September 28 overturned a centuries-old tradition barring girls and women between 10 and 50 years from entering the temple in Pathanamthitta district.
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.
With inputs from PTI
