Two women, who are less than 50-year-old started trekking uphill to the Hindu shrine Sabarimala today morning returned to the base camp Pamba as they were blocked by protestors a few km away from Kerala’s temple. According to reports, two women have demanded more personnel to be sent from the base camp Pampa as the protestors surrounded them.
Bindu, one of the two women has said that they will not turn back even if they are attacked. Some people gathered outside her house in Kozhikode and raised slogans, local news channels reported.
The protestors who tried to stop these women were quickly removed by the police personnel. On Sunday, a group comprising of 11 women aborted their attempt to go to the hilltop shrine of Lord Ayyappa after protesters clashed with the police. The women were evicted from the base camp, located 5 km from the temple, by the Kerala police following a huge face-off with protesters. Meanwhile, the police have denied the accusation.
The group was expected to be the first of several planning to attempt the trek in December — three months after a Supreme Court’s historic order allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala temple.
Almost 40 women are expected to arrive over the next few days to attempt to offer puja when the temple opens for Makarsankranti on December 30.
Accusing the police of enacting a drama, the women, who were shifted to the police control room at Pamba on Sunday, said, “The police failed us. They told us they can’t provide us security and forcibly evicted us”.
The police, they further said, “delayed” them in the morning which played into the hands of the protesters. “We came at 3 am but the police made us wait for 9 hours and escorted us around 12 pm, provoking hundreds of protesters gathered,” they quoted by NDTV as saying.
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