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Clashes erupted on Wednesday as Hindu extremists prevented women from visiting one of India's most sacred temples. The police brandished batons and charged protesters who were throwing stones.
Ugly scenes erupted as crowds encircled and attacked women journalists' cars. Other reporters, including a woman journalist from AFP, were intimidated.
The situation remained tense after dark, with the police reinforcing the 500 officers already present before possibly another dramatic day Thursday on the road to the Lord Ayyappa Temple in Sabarimala.
Last month, India's Supreme Court overturned a ban on women of reproductive age – between the ages of 10 and 50 – from entering and praying at the hilltop temple in State of Kerala, in the south of the country.
These rabid traditionalists, including supporters of the Hindu Nationalist Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demonstrated in front of thousands of people in the days leading up to the opening Wednesday afternoon.
The state government of Kerala insisted that it would enforce the court ruling and guarantee free access to the remote complex, reached by a difficult trekking taking several hours.
In Nilackal, a base camp under the temple, police cleared protesters early Wednesday morning and arrested seven people who stopped vehicles.
"Severe measures will be taken against all those who prevent the faithful from going to Sabarimala," Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Tuesday.
Protesters gather at Nilackal, a base camp on the way to the mountain sanctuary of Kerala, India.
AP
Pushed
But later, the police struggled to control the situation, fighting battles that killed five worshipers and 15 wounded policemen, according to EP Jayarajan, minister of the Kerala government.
Both CNN News 18 and Republic TV news channels broadcast images of cars vandalized by their reporters. The online publication The Minute News revealed that his reporter had been kicked in the back.
A 45-year-old woman identified as Madhavi who wanted to enter the temple abandoned her attempt after activists prevented her from climbing up the hill, the Press Trust of India reported.
Although the police provided protection for the woman and her family and allowed them to move further, they gave up on angry activists around them, PTI reported.
Biju S. Pillai, a man in his thirties, was one of those who opposed the court 's decision. He told AFP that he had returned from his job in Dubai to "protect the sanctity of the temple".
"No one should be able to change the functioning of this temple for centuries," he said. "If changes are made, they will have to kill us and review our bodies."
"I am here to protest the decision of the Supreme Court," said engineer Anisha S., 23, a member of a group chanting religious slogans. "We want to save our traditions, Ayyappa must be respected."
Jayarajan blamed the violence on the "henchmen" of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a radical Hindu group considered close to the BJP of Modi, an opposition party in Kerala.
Sreedharan Pillai, head of the Kerala BJP, pointed to the state government and a botched police operation.
"The overwhelming majority of women are opposed to the decision of the Supreme Court," he told AFP.
Police hunt protesters
AP
& # 39; Unclean & # 39;
Women are allowed to enter most Hindu temples, but some worshipers are still barred.
Two years ago, activists successfully led a campaign to end the ban on women entering Shani Shingnapur Temple in the state of Maharashtra.
Women were also allowed to enter the Haji Ali Dargah mausoleum in Mumbai, a Muslim place of worship, after the Supreme Court overturned a ban in 2016.
The entry of women to Sabarimala was a taboo for a long time, but it was formalized by the Kerala High Court in 1991, a decision that was overturned by the Supreme Court of India last month.
The restriction reflected an old but still prevalent belief among many that menstruating women were unclean, and the fact that Ayyappa deity was deemed to have been single.
The Sabarimala chief priest, Kandararu Maheshwararu Tantri, 25, warned this week that "anger could easily escalate into violence if some selfish women tried to enter the temple."
