Sabarimala: Protesters vent ire on journalists

Nilackal/Pamba: Women journalists faced the wrath of protesters, their vehicles smashed, and young female Ayyappa devotees turned back as hordes of Hindu right activists besieged the road leading to the Sabarimala temple whose gates open for women of menstrual age Wednesday evening for the first time after the Supreme Court's verdict.

The political slugfest over the Kerala government's decision not to file a review petition against the apex court order also spiralled out control as tempers frayed in areas surrounding the hill shrine that was on edge.

Activist Rahul Easwar, a front-ranking leader of the protesters and votary of the continuance of the tradition barring girls and women between 10 and 50 years from entering the temple, a custom which the Supreme Court overturned on September 28, was arrested at Pamba at the foothill from where the trek to the shrine begins.

Simmering tension prevailing in Nilackal since morning erupted into rank rowdyism as scores of activists of fringe groups heckled women journalists of at least four national TV channels and vandalised their vehicles.

National TV showed protesters wearing black and saffron turbans running after their cars, violently pounding and kicking the vehicles in a bid to stop them from proceeding to Pamba from Nilackal on the way to Sabarimala.

There was a massive police presence in Pamba, Nilackal and Erumeli- the important landmarks en route Sabarimala.

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 PTI inputs)