Kerala: Man’s Body Recovered; BJP Claims he Died of Police Brutality During Sabarimala Protests, Calls For 12-hour Shutdown in Pathananthitta District

Thiruvananthapuram: The BJP has called for a 12-hour shutdown in the Pathananthitta district following the recovery of the body of a 60-year-old man in the forest area in Laha. The party has alleged that the man he had died due to police brutality during the Sabarimala protests last month. (Also read: Ministers From Other Southern States Skip Meet on Sabarimala)

The saffron party has been intensifying its agitation over the Sabarimala issue. This Tuesday, it staged a day-long fast seeking to keep women of menstrual age out of the temple. Hundreds of BJP workers staged the “hunger strike” in front of the state police chief’s office protesting the LDF government’s move to implement the Supreme Court order lifting the ban on entry of menstrual age women into the Sabarimala shrine and also the police crackdown on the protesters.

BJP state president PS Sreedharan Pillai led the agitation while party cadres also took out marches to offices of the Superintendents of Police in all district headquarters to condemn the government for arresting over 3,000 people in connection with the protests earlier this month.

Elsewhere, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi left the Kerala unit of his party red-faced by saying “on a personal level” he welcomed the Supreme Court order but conceded his views were different from those of his party’s Kerala unit.  Later, actress-turned-party spokesperson Khushboo said in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh that the Central and Kerala units of the Congress were not “confused” over the Sabarimala issue.

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Her remarks came two days after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi acknowledged that his view to allow all women to enter the Sabarimala shrine was different from that of his party’s Kerala unit. “We are not confused on the issue of Sabrimala though there are different opinions (between the Kerala and Central units). For us, the historic decision of the Supreme Court to grant the entry to women of menstrual age to the Sabarimala temple is supreme.”