Woman activist proceeding to Sabarimala temple attacked by Hindu outfit member
Kochi, Nov 26: A woman activist, who is part of a team headed for Sabarimala to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa Shrine, was allegedly attacked by a member of a Hindu outfit here on Tuesday.
Bindu Ammini, who created history by visiting Sabarimala temple last year following the Apex Court order, was part of the team led by gender rights activist Trupti Desai.
Ammini was attacked by the member of a Hindu outfit using pepper or chilli spray outside the police commissionerate.
The man identified as Srinath Padmanabhan was taken into custody, police said.
Visuals aired by TV channels showed her being attacked.
She has been taken to a hospital here, sources said.
A large number of Ayyappa devotees gathered outside the commissionerate protested against Desai and other activists.
Earlier, Trupti Desai reached the city to proceed to Sabarimala to offer prayers at the Lord Ayyappa shrine along with few other activists.
However, they were taken to the city police commissionerate as soon as they landed at the airport here.
Desai said they preferred November 26 to visit the shrine as it was the Constitution Day.
She said she has come up with the 2018 order of the Supreme Court permitting entry of women of all age groups into the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala.
"I will leave Kerala only after offering prayers at the shrine," the activist said.
The Pune-based Desai had made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the temple in November last year, weeks after the Supreme Court lifted the ban that prevented women and girls between the age of 10 and 50 from entering the famous shrine.
The Kerala government has decided not to allow women in the menstrual age group to the temple following the recent Supreme Court decision to review its earlier judgment.
Kerala: Bindu Ammini, one of the two women who first entered the #Sabarimala temple in January this year, says, "a man sprayed chilli and pepper at my face,"outside Ernakulam city police commissioner's office today morning. pic.twitter.com/lt2M58264k
— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2019
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Trump says Islamic State group leader was killed in joint US-Nigerian mission
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump said US and Nigerian forces killed a leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria in a mission carried out Friday.
Trump announced the joint operation in a late-night social media post that offered few details. He said Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was second in command of the Islamic State group globally and “thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing.”
The US viewed Al-Mainuki as the key figure in IS organising and finance, and believed he was plotting attacks against the United States and its interests, according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share sensitive information.
Born in Nigeria's Borno province in 1982, al-Mainuki took the helm of the IS branch in West Africa after the group's previous leader in the region, Mamman Nur, was killed in 2018, according to the Counter Extremism Project, which tracks militant groups.
Al-Mainuki was based in the Sahel area, the monitoring group said, adding that it is believed that he fought in Libya when IS was active in the North African nation more than a decade ago. He was sanctioned by the US in 2023.
Trump in December directed US forces to launch strikes against the Islamic State group in Nigeria, though he released little detail then about the impact.
Nigeria has been battling multiple armed groups, including at least two affiliated with IS.
The Friday night operation was the latest instance in a string of covert missions abroad that Trump has announced this year, starting with the stunning overnight raid in January to capture and remove Venezuela's then-leader Nicolás Maduro and whisk him to the US, followed nearly two months later by the launch of strikes that kicked off the war with Iran.
