House of activist Rehana attacked

Activist Rehana Fathima's house was allegedly vandalised by unidentified persons while she was attempting to reach the Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala on Friday, police said.

She had made a failed attempt to reach the temple with heavy police protection.

Police said Saturday that the attackers reached Fatima's house in Panambilly Nagar here while she was climbing the hills.

Fathima, a model and activist who was part of "Kiss of Love" movement in Kochi in 2014 against alleged moral policing, was among the two women who had reached the hilltop but had to return before reaching the sanctum sanctorum following massive protests by Ayyappa devotees.

Fathima and Hyderabad-based journalist Kavitha were taken to the hills with heavy police protection.

A mother of two and employee of the BSNL, Fathima had kicked up a row last year by posing for topless photos with watermelons in protest against a Kozhikode-based college professor's statement comparing women's breasts to watermelons.

The houses of a 46-year-old woman from Kazhakkoottam in Thiruvananthapuram district, who had also made an attempt to trek the forest path from downhill Pamba to the temple complex five km away, were also allegedly attacked by unidentified people.

The woman's houses at Thumba and Murukkumpuzha were reportedly attacked soon after she made the attempt to climb the holy hills.

She, however, gave up the attempt following protests from devotees.

On September 28, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then chief justice Dipak Misra, lifted the centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine but a section of devotees is protesting the decision.