3 women from Tamil Hindu outfit held in Kerala as they were planning to enter mosque in Sabarimala

They have been identified as Revathy and Susheela Devi from Tiruppur and Gandhimathi.

They are from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu.

The arrested women reportedly belong to a Hindu fringe group called the Indu Makkal Katchi or Hindu Makkal Katchi.

The women recently said they should enter Vavar mosque specially after menstruating women entered the Hindu shrine.

For centuries, menstruating women had been banned from entering the temple in devotion to Lord Ayyappa.   

Along with the women, 3 men from Hindu Makkal Katchi who accompanied them to Kerala as well the driver has been arrested by the Kozhinjambara police, reported The News Minute.

“They wanted to create communal tension. The police knew about their visit to Palakkad and security was tightened at all  7 check posts near the district. The group were finally found and taken into custody at the Vela thavalam check post in Palakkad,” a source told TNM.

The group has been charged under section 153 A of the IPC (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc.) and will be presented before the magistrate after the police record their arrest, the newspaper reported.

“They (the women) had announced that they will enter Vavaru mosque in retaliation for women entering at Sabarimala. Hence they were arrested in the border while trying to enter the state," Kozhinjampara police told the newspaper.

Sabarimala Hindu Temple: Two women create history

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently said the two women in their mid 40s entered the shrine on Wednesday with police protection, media reports said.

Video footage of the incident, where two women could be seen entering the temple, has gone viral on social media.

The women reportedly reached the temple around 3:45 am.

According to some media reports, these two women have been identified as activists Bindhu and Kanaka Durga.

After the women's entry,  the temple was closed for "purification rituals", a move that was slammed by various outfits saying it was practising untouchability.

Why is the controversy?

On Sept 28, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court had lifted the ban on women's entry into the Sabarimala temple declaring the relevant rules as unconstitutional.
Following the top court's verdict, the shrine opened on Oct 18 for the first time allowing menstruating women, belonging to the age group of 10 to 50, to enter the temple.

However, several men and women had protested outside the temple, and tried to prevent the entry of women in the shrine.

Congress, BJP on same page:

With the elections round the corner and the emergence of BJP in the state, the Congress is singing in the tune of the saffron party in Kerala.

Though Congress president Rahul Gandhi last year urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rise above politics by lending an unconditional support to the BJP in the Lok Sabha on women's reservation bill, the Sabarimala issue has exposed a different stand of the country's oldest party.

On Thursday, when the BJP supported a statewide shutdown called by right-wing organisations, the Congress observed a "black-day" in Kerala, apparently remaining in the same page with BJP on the issue of women's entry in Sabarimala.

Protests break out after women's entry:

Kerala was on an edge as several protests broke out after the two women's entry into Sabarimala temple on Wednesday. On Thursday, three BJP women were reportedly stabbed in a clash in Thrissur.

Chandran Unnithan (55), Sabarimala Karma Samithi activist, who was injured in a clash during the protest against women's entry into Sabarimala temple on Wednesday, has died. 

Image: Wikimedia Commons