Nilackal/Pamba (Kerala): Amid violent protests, the doors of Sabarimala temple in Kerala opened Wednesday for the first time since the Supreme Court lifted the centuries-old ban on entry of women of menstrual age but by available indications none from this age group made it to the famed hill top shrine.
Women journalists were heckled, their vehicles smashed and young female Ayyappa 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, officials said.
Chaos and mayhem on the road leading from Nilackal, the gateway to the shrine, 20 km away, to Pamba in the foothills from where the devotees start the arduous 6-km trek to Sabarimala reigned supreme, as activists of fought pitched battles with police, leaving many injured and bleeding.
The Pathanamthitta district authorities promulgated prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC banning assembly of four or more people in strife-torn Pamba and Nilackal following the violence and a strike called by right wing outfits for Thursday.
Activist Rahul Easwar, a front-ranking leader of the protesters and votary of continuance of the tradition barring girls and women between 10 and 50 years from entering the temple, a custom which the Supreme Court overturned September 28, was arrested at Pamba.
Incensed over Kerala’s Left Front government’s decision not to file a review plea against the Supreme Court verdict, protesters pelted stones at the police and the latter hit right back with vengeance wielding batons with telling effect, leaving many fallen and writhing in pain on the road.
Several protesters were seen being bundled into police vehicles, while siren blaring ambulances carried some to hospitals.
Simmering tension prevailing in Nilackal since morning erupted into raucous rowdyism as scores of activists of fringe groups heckled women journalists of at least four national TV channels and vandalised their vehicles.
Protesters wearing black and saffron turbans chased their cars, violently pounding and kicking the vehicles in a bid to stop them from proceeding to Pamba from Nilackal on way to Sabarimala.
At least 10 people from the media, including reporters and photojournalists, were injured and equipment of several of them damaged, senior minister E P Jayarajan said.
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