INDIA : HINDU TEMPLE TURNS FORTRESS

INDIAN police mounted a huge security operation Friday to ensure women can safely access a  flashpoint Hindu temple, after battles erupted the first time they attempted to enter following a  historic court ruling.

More than 3,400  police, many in riot gear, lined routes to Sabarimala temple a hilltop shrine in Kerala state, which traditionalists are trying to prevent women from reaching.

The Supreme Court ruled  in September that a ban on women aged between  10  and  50 entering  the temple was illegal.

Sabarimala has since become a  showdown issue for gender activists and Hindu hardliners. About 700 women have registered to visit the shrine, which opens on Friday ahead of  the start of the Hindu festival  beginning on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of devotees were expected to make the four-hour trek up a hill to Sabarimala during the festival  which lasts until mid-January.

On Friday morning hundreds of  demonstrators at Keral's Kochi airport tried to stop leading activist  Trupti Desai from leaving for Sabarimala.

 ''We tried to hire taxis  several time  but the agitators are not allowing them to take us. They have threatened violence if they do,''  Desai told Indian television.

''Even police said they cannot help us go out of the airport right now because the number of protesters is swelling and they resorting to violence,'' she said.

''A while ago they tried to take us from a back door but the protesters spotted us and attacked the cars.''

On the roads around the temple, 150 kilometers , 150 kilometers south of Kochi, police meanwhile set up barricades to check cars. ''We will deploy over  15,200  police around the temple for the entire season up to January 15,'' Kerala police spokesman Parmod Kumar said [Agencies]