Sabarimala: Two women return amid threats by priests to shut the temple

Two women who climbed 5 kilometre towards the Sabarimala temple with 300 policemen in riot gear escorting them had to turn back after the Sabarimala temple priests threatened the rituals will be stopped if they entered the shrine of Lord Ayyappa.

The women, including a journalist, were 500 metres from the 18 steps, that leads to the sanctum sanctorum of Sabarimala shrine, when they decided to return.

On the steps sat about a dozen priests , chanting and clapping, apparently to stop the women from entering the shrine.

Last month, the Supreme Court overturned the ban on women of menstruating age entering the temple of Lord Ayyappa. But in the three days that Sabarimala has been open for the first time since the landmark order, no woman below 50 has made it to the shrine.

"I believe I've come here to enforce the Supreme Court order. Those women have the right to visit the temple," said S Sreejith, the Inspector General of Police leading the police escort with the women. "I am also an Ayyappa devotee," he told protesting devotees.

According to a report in NDTV, Devaswom Board minister Kadakampally Surendran said any genuine devotee who wants to go up will be given protection. "But we will not allow activists to turn Sabarimala into a place to prove themselves," said Surendran.

On Thursday, there was a dawn-to-dusk shutdown across Kerala called by outfits owing loyalty to Hindu groups and the BJP.

On Thursday morning, two journalists of the New York Times who tried to reach the temple had to return after protesters blocked their way.