Palakkad (PTI): After being trapped in a cleft on a mountain face in Malampuzha area of Palakkad district in Kerala for nearly two days, rescue teams of the Army were able to reach Babu, provide him food and water and then haul him to safety.

Visuals on news channels showed the youth being helped up the mountain by Army personnel, who are part of the specialised teams which arrived here last night from Bengaluru, by strapping him to one of the rescuers.

The visuals also showed the rescue team slowly climbing up by making stops in between to give the youth some rest.

The youth was hauled up to safety by 10.08 AM by the Army personnel and successfully completed the massive rescue effort, perhaps the first of its kind in the state, which involved local bodies, NDRF, Coast Guard with the Air Force also standing by to chip in.

Babu was trapped in a recess on the mountain face, between rocks, in the scorching heat with no water or food since Monday.

According to locals, the youth, along with two others had on Monday decided to climb to the top of Cherad hill there, but the other two abandoned the effort halfway.

However, Babu continued to climb to the top, and after reaching there, slipped and fell and got trapped between rocks on the mountain face.

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Patna, Dec 26: RJD president Lalu Prasad on Thursday slammed the BJP over alleged heckling of a woman artist who sang a bhajan, known to be a favourite of Mahatma Gandhi, at a function organised on the birth anniversary of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee a day ago.

The RJD supremo, on his X handle, alleged that the BJP leaders had taken exception to the phrase 'Sita Ram' and asked the singer to apologise before erupting in roars of "Jai Shri Ram".

The well-attended function was held on Wednesday at Bapu Sabhagar, a sprawling state-of-the-art auditorium in the heart of the city.

The septuagenarian alleged that the incident was "reflective of the misogyny that the BJP and the Sangh Parivar was known for" and its "disdain for females was resulting in disrespect for 'Sita Mata'."

However, BJP sources, who did not wish to be named, pointed out that the newspaper report shared by Prasad in an earlier tweet clearly stated that the furore was not over 'Sita Ram', but the subsequent stanza - 'Ishwar Allah Tero Naam'.

The sources claimed that party workers were opposed to the "recital of a line that was not part of the original verse composed by 15th-century poet Narsi Mehta, but inserted later, apparently in line with Gandhi's Hindu-Muslim unity plank".