Two women in their 30s were on Wednesday prevented from entering the Sabarimala temple in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district by angry devotees, days after two others became the first to offer prayers at the shrine.
Reshma and Sanila, residents of Kannur, covered almost half of the 5.5-kilometre trek to the hilltop shrine but were intercepted by angry devotees in the morning. They used the lean time in the early hours to dodge protesters and started trekking at 5 am.
Both of them said they came after police promised protection.
As the situation turned tense, police plead helplessness saying it is beyond their control. The women were taken to Pambha, the base camp, after they were blocked for two hours.
The Supreme Court in September last year allowed women of all ages to worship at the Sabarimala shrine, overturning a centuries-old traditional ban on women of childbearing age from entering the temple.
Female devotees aged between 10 and 50 had for decades been barred from the shrine on grounds that the presiding deity Lord Ayyappa is a celibate, and the top court’s ruling enraged traditionalists in Kerala.
The Left Democratic Front government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said it was determined to uphold the court verdict. On January 2, two women in their 40s became the first to worship at the shrine on Wednesday, triggering unrest in many parts of Kerala.
One of them Kanaka Durga was attacked by her mother-in-law on her return home on Monday. She has been admitted to a hospital at Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district.
First Published: Jan 16, 2019 08:15 IST
Source: HindustanTimes