The Congress-led UDF on Tuesday violated the prohibitory orders clamped under IPC Section 144 at the Sabarimala temple, in protest against the alleged ‘police raj’ at the hill shrine and to demand that Section 144 be withdrawn.
UDF leaders and workers, including former Kerala CM Oommen Chandy, earlier today had launched a sit-in agitation at Nilakkal after the police blocked them.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on Monday urged the government to take action against only those protesters who had reached the shrine to disrupt peace. “Arresting real devotees who climb the hills to offer prayers is unacceptable,” he said.
FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES HERE
UDF leaders and workers proceed to Pamba on a KSRTC bus from Nilakkal, reports Manorama News.
"They were not Ayyappa devotees. RSS workers were camping at Sannidhanam with a motive to create trouble. The government cannot let anyone create trouble at Sabarimala," the chief minister said on Monday.
The minister said: "The state government has turned the temple complex into a war zone. The devotees are not militants, they are pilgrims."
The Congress-led UDF in Kerala staged a sit-in protest today after the police stopped them in Nilakkal for violating prohibitory orders.