NILACKAL: Clashes erupted on Wednesday as Hindu hardliners prevented women visiting one of India’s most sacred temples, with baton-waving police charging stone-throwing protesters.

Ugly scenes erupted as mobs surrounded and atta­cked the cars of female jou­rnalists. Other reporters in­­­­c­luding a female AFP jou­­rnalist were intimidated.

The situation remained tense after nightfall, with police reinforcing the 500 officers already present ahead of likely another dra­­matic day on Thursday on the road to the Lord Ayyap­pa temple at Sabarimala.

Last month India’s Sup­r­eme Court overturned a ban on females of menstruating age — judged betw­een 10 and 50 years — entering and praying at the hilltop temple in the southern state of Kerala.

This enraged traditionalists, including supporters of Prime Minister Naren­dra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with thousands protesting in the days before the scheduled opening on Wednesday afternoon.

Kerala’s state government insisted it would enforce the court ruling and ensure free access to the remote complex, reached by an uphill trek that takes several hours.

At Nilackal, a base camp below the temple, police cleared protesters early Wednesday morning and arrested seven people who were stopping vehicles.

“Stern action will be taken against anyone who prevents devotees from going to Sabarimala,” Ker­ala’s Chief Minister Pin­a­r­ayi Vijayan said on Tuesday.

But later police struggled to control the situation, fighting running battles that left five devotees and 15 policemen injured, according to EP Jayarajan, a minister in the Kerala government.

One 45-year old woman identified as Madhavi who wanted to enter the temple abandoned her attempt after activists prevented her climbing the hill, the Press Trust of India reported.

Biju S. Pillai, a local man in his 30s, was one of those opposed to the court ruling, telling AFP that he returned from working in Dubai to “protect the sanctity of the temple”.

Published in Dawn, October 18th, 2018