Journalists attacked, media vans vandalised: How Nilakkal, the Sabarimala base camp, descended into chaos

However, within a few hours, a large mob of protesters, in the guise of agitating peacefully, was allowed to assemble at Nilakkal. Things spiralled out of control when the mobs stopped state transport buses and cars carrying pilgrims from Nilakkal to Pamba, the last halt before Sabarimala. While the police looked on, the protesters, wearing yellow and saffron scarves and headbands, vented their ire on the media, assaulting women journalists and smashing windscreens of the vehicles in which they were travelling. Sabarimala protests highlights

Protesters, wearing yellow and saffron scarves and headbands, vented their ire on the media, assaulting women journalists and smashing windscreens of the vehicles in which they were travelling. (Express Photo: Vishnu Varma)

Pooja Prasanna of Republic TV, Mousami Singh of India Today, Rajeesh of Reporter TV, Radhika Ramaswamy of CNN-News18 and Saritha S Balan of The News Minute were the five journalists who came under attack from the angry mob and had to be rescued by the police. Media and OB vans of Malayalam news channels were also targeted and vandalised.

When the mobs showed no signs of backing down, the police, several of them in full riot gear, resorted to lathi-charge, chasing them through the small undulating hills marking Nilakkal. The protesters, all male, responded by throwing stones at the police as well. The police also hit back with stones, some of them even raining past journalists and photographers who were caught in the crossfire. An elderly woman in her 60s was taken to the hospital with her head bleeding during the stone pelting.

“I don’t know why the police also resorted to stone-pelting. I missed a stone by a whisker. I had to duck behind a placard to avoid being hit,” a photographer from News24 said.

In the middle of the melee, the agitating mobs were also openly seen wagging fingers at journalists and threatening them to pack up their cameras and go home. The Network of Women in Media India (NWMI) have asked the government and the police force to provide adequate support and safety to journalists who have been covering the protests at Sabarimala. Several journalists also took out a march to the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram complaining of attacks on the press.

Through the day, both Nilakkal and Pamba also saw a range of protests led by different parties including the Congress and the BJP. Senior leaders of the state BJP such as Sobha Surendran, K Surendran and MT Ramesh took part in prayer meetings and cautioned the state government in hurting the beliefs of devotees.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the police had seized control of Nilakkal by dismantling a tent raised by mostly-male protesters and launching a mini-lathicharge on them to pre-empt any move of violence.

Sobha Surendran, BJP general secretary, told the Indian Express, “This is an orchestrated agenda by the Left-front government. If the devotees together take up this cause (of defending the temple’s traditions), no police or party can stop them.”

Congress working president K Sudhakaran, along with a slew of party leaders, also sat for peaceful protests at Nilackal.

At the same time, no woman between the age of 10-50 has been able to trek to the temple on Wednesday. When a family from Andhra Pradesh consisting of a 40-year-old woman reached Pamba, protesters blocked them. A senior police official said the family, scared by the mob, chose not to proceed further but return home. Another woman, Libi, a native of Cherthala in Alappuzha district who announced on Facebook her plans to climb the hill at Sabarimala, abandoned her travel, stressing that she was doing so because the police expressed their reluctance to provide safety cover.

At 5 pm, when the embers of the violence at Nilakkal had still not died down with several protesters and police officials wounded, the temple doors at Sabarimala promptly opened to the public.