Sabarimala Temple Protests LIVE: BJP Yuva Morcha Members Detained in Nilakkal

As protesting devotees continue to block the path of women, Kerala IG Manoj Abraham says, “We are here to give protection to every pilgrim. We have set up road blocks. We cannot cover the entire crowd, but we will offer protection to every pilgrim who comes to Sabarimala.”

Members of BJP Yuva Morcha have reportedly been detained for staging protests in Nilakkal.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweets that those stopping women from proceeding to the Sabarimala shrine are “RSS-backed”. “These attackers are motivated by casteist and feudal ideologies. Encouraging such movements will eventually lead to the banishment of backward classes from places like Sabarimala. All believers must condemn this attack on Sabarimala,” he says.

Sabarimala has a uniqueness that other temples lack; it allows entry for people of all faith. Sangh Parivar and RSS have always been intolerant of this fact. They have made many attempts to erase this distinction of Sabarimala.

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) October 18, 2018

The role they played in eliminating the rituals performed at Sabarimala by Adivasi-Malayaran community is common knowledge. The present troubles must be seen in this light. The RSS backed attackers are obstructing believers and spreading terror.

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) October 18, 2018

These attackers are motivated by casteist and feudal ideologies. Encouraging such movements will eventually lead to the banishment of backward classes from places like Sabarimala. All believers must condemn this attack on Sabarimala.

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) October 18, 2018

Police have also promulgated section 144 of CrPc in four places including Pamba, Sannidhanam to check any kind of protest and violence. The Sabarimala Samarakashna Samithi, an outfit of devotees, has called the hartal to protest the Wednesday 'police lathicharge' against Lord Ayyappa devotees at Nilackal, the base camp of Lord Ayappa shrine in Sabarimala. The BJP and its NDA partners have extended their support to the hartal call. The Congress said it would not join the strike but hold protest demonstrations across the state on Thursday.

Buses and auto-rickshaws are meanwhile off roads in Kerala due to a hartal called by various Hindu outfits against the decision to allow women of all age groups to enter the Sabarimala temple. Special security arrangements have been put in place at various locations including Pamba, Nilackal, Erumeli en route to the Sabarimala temple, located in Pathanamthitta district. However, stray incidents of stone-pelting on Kerala State Road Transport Corporation buses were reported from some parts of the state. However, private vehicles were plying in some areas.

Speaking to CNN-News18, NYT journalist Suhasini Raj, who was stopped from going to the temple by protesters, lauds Kerala Police. “I was given an escort by Kerala Police, they had done a fantastic job. During my trek, we encountered protesters who were against my presence there. They pelted stones at us. Kerala Police protected me. They were ready to call in additional forces, but I decided against it and called off my trek to Sabarimala. When I was brought back to the police station, I was offered medical help and now I have been given a police escort to Kochi,” she says.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has spoken about the Sabarimala temple row in his Vijayadashami speech, saying devotees should have been consulted before the SC verdict on women’s entry was implanted. Click here for updates on Bhagwat’s speech

New York Times reporter Suhasini Raj, who was forced by angry protesters to return to Pamba, will not be making another attempt to reach the Sabarimala shrine. She is being given police escort for her return to Kochi.

A 24-hour bandh called by Pravin Togadia’s Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad and Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi, an outfit of devotees, has begun taking effect in Kerala. Buses run by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) have reportedly been pelted with stones in Kozikode, Cherthala and Aatingal.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's decision to implement the SC order - or rather his perceived haste in implementing the order - actually came as a surprise lifeline for the BJP and the Sangh Parivar.

Accused of political opportunism over the Sabarimala temple row, the Congress says it stands by "gender equality", adding, however, that its Kerala unit has the right to espouse the sentiments of locals to seek a review of the Supreme Court verdict. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said it is the constitutional right of every citizen to seek a review of a Supreme Court judgment and these sentiments are expressed by a multitude of groups in Kerala. "As far as the local sentiments are concerned, it is the duty of the Kerala State Congress Committee to espouse and place forward the sentiments of the people. They are neither violating the law nor the Constitution," he told reporters.

The Lord Ayyappa shrine will remain open for the 5-day monthly pooja during the Malayalam month of Thulam before being closed on October 22. 'Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad' led by Pravin Togadia and the 'Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi', an outfit of devotees, have called a 24-hour-long hartal which started at midnight.

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 has reacted sharply to the protests, with the state's religious trusts minister Kadakampally Surendran calling them "politically motivated". Surendran, who reviewed the situation and preparations for the three-month-long Mandalam-Makaravilakku-festival beginning November 17 at Sannidhanam (Sabarimala temple complex), said the government would tackle the agitation politically.

Suhasini Raj is the third woman who has been stopped midway the trek. Yesterday, Madhavi, a gutsy 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 by angry male devotees. Liby, a woman from Kerala's Alappuzha, also in the 10-50 year age group, was prevented from proceeding to Sabarimala at Pathanamthitta bus terminal. She was escorted to safety by police.

UPDATE | NYT reporter Suhasini Raj who was forced to return by protesters is now back in Pamba. A police escort team has taken her to the Pamba police station where a call will be taken on a fresh attempt to make it to the temple.

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 on 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 police with stones 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.

The temple gates had reopened for monthly prayers yesterday, the first time since the Supreme Court allowed women of menstrual age to enter the Lord Ayyappa shrine. Women journalists, including a CNN-News18 reporter and her crew, 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. 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.

UPDATE | New York Times journalist Suhasini Raj has been forced to abandon her journey to the Sabarimala temple after protests, despite being given police protection. Raj was trekking to the hill with a colleague, who is reportedly a foreigner. She had to end her journey at Marakkoottam after protesters blocked her way. Earlier, she was blocked at Pamba by protesters who were chanting hymns of Lord Ayyappa, but she managed to get past them after showing her ID card. She had said that she was came here as part of her job and not as a devotee, Mathrubhumi reported.

It’s the first morning following the tense opening of the temple doors in Sabarimala  and a woman, said to be a Delhi-based journalist of a foreign media outlet, began trekking to the hill amid protests by devotees opposing the entry of girls and women of menstrual age into the hill shrine. Police have thrown a security ring around the woman accompanied by her colleague, a foreigner. However, there is no confirmation regarding her age. Local TV crew said she is in her late 40s and if she climbed the hill, she would be the first woman of the menstrual age group to visit the Sabarimala temple of Lord Ayyappa after the Supreme Court order permitting women of all age groups to enter the shrine.

Seen here, women above 50 years of age entering Sabarimala temple on Wednesday evening. Women between the ages of 10-50 did not arrive as protests opposing the SC verdict broke out, preventing women’s entry into the shrine. Women journalists were also heckled and attacked.

Kerala:Women above 50 yrs of age were seen entering #SabarimalaTemple this evening.Women b/w 10-50 yrs of age didn't arrive there today due to security concerns,in the light of protests opposing entry of women of all age groups at the temple.Its portals will stay open till Oct 22 pic.twitter.com/aG8bSYW6SL

— ANI (@ANI) 17 October 2018

Two reporters - one from The News Minute and one from the Republic TV - were also attacked by the anti-women protesters.

Meanwhile, Kerala Union of Working Journalists has taken out a protest march in Thiruvananthapuram against the attack on journalists near the Sabarimala temple. Earlier today, women journalists were attacked and their vehicles were damaged as hordes of protestors occupied the road leading to the Sabarimala temple whose gates opened for women of menstrual age today for the first time after the Supreme Court's verdict.

Section 144 to be imposed in four places including Pamba and Nilakkal. Section 144 prohibits assembly of more than 4 people in an area. 

#BREAKING -- Section 144 to be imposed in four places including Pamban and Nilakkal | @Neethureghu with more details pic.twitter.com/kc3QBoYRLl

— News18 (@CNNnews18) 17 October 2018

Industries minister EP Jayarajan said that non-bailable warrants are being issued against those behind attacks over journalists. He added that the government is providing security to devotees so that they can go to Sannidhanam. 

#ALERT | Non-bailable warrants being issued against those behind attacks over journalists: E P Jayarajan, Industries Minister | #DadagiriOrDevotion | #SabarimalaForAll pic.twitter.com/Ayg7TNUuZK

— News18 (@CNNnews18) 17 October 2018

MHA Takes Cognisance of Violence Near Sabarimala | Sources have said that the Ministry of Home Affairs has taken cognisance of the incidents of violence that took place in Kerala today.  

Ministry of Home Affairs has taken cognisance of the incidents of violence that took place in Kerala today: Sources #SabarimalaTemple

— ANI (@ANI) 17 October 2018

FIR Registered in Connection with Attack on News18 Journalist | An FIR was registered under relevant sections after News18’s reporter Radhika Ramaswamy was attacked by a mob at the Nilakkal base camp. The anti-women protesters had surrounded the car in which News18’s reporter Radhika Ramaswamy was travelling and abused her verbally, asking her to turn back. The attackers tried to pull her out, attacked the car, broke the window panes and hit the vehicles with sticks. The goons also vandalised the camera equipment that the crew was carrying. Recounting the horror, Radhika said that there were “2-3 cops when the incident happened. I was calling out for help and the police did not stop the mob.”

Seen here, prayers being offered at the Sabarimala temple after its gates opened at 5 pm today.

#WATCH: Prayers being offered at #SabarimalaTemple after its portals opened at 5 pm; devotees can offer prayers till 10.30 pm today. #Kerala pic.twitter.com/rBuneRDatN

— ANI (@ANI) 17 October 2018

BJP Extends Support to 24-hour Hartal | The Bharatiya Janata Party extended support to the 24-hour hartal which was called by the Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi on Thursday on the issue of women’s entry into the revered shrine. The hartal was called by right wing outfit, 'Antharashtriya Hindu Parishad' led by Pravin Togadia and the 'Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithi', an outfit of devotees.

Kerala minister EP Jayarajan alleged that RSS criminals hid in forests and attacked the Ayappa devotees. “10 media personnel, 5 devotees and 15 policemen were attacked,” he said.

RSS criminals hid in forests and attacked the Ayappa devotees. 10 media personnel, 5 devotees and 15 policemen were attacked: Kerala minister EP Jayarajan on incidents of violence today #SabarimalaTemple pic.twitter.com/ohrFeiG9Pn

— ANI (@ANI) 17 October 2018

ANI Reporter Attacked | ANI reporter Karam Ingerlose was slapped by protesters and his phone was snatched and broken into pieces by them when he was shooting a video in Erumely. The protesters reportedly let him go only after the reporter apologised. Earlier in the day, CNN-News18 crew covering was attacked by a mob at the Nilakkal base camp. The anti-women protesters surrounded the car in which News18’s reporter Radhika Ramaswamy was travelling and abused her verbally, asking her to turn back. Even as cops at the spot looked on, more protesters joined in.