Tension grips Kerala as various Hindu outfits, including Sabarimala Karma Samiti, have called for a statewide bandh from 6 am to 6 pm on Saturday over the Sabarimala row. The strike has received support from the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sabarimala shrine reopened for the third time on Friday after the Supreme Court allowed women of menstrual age to offer prayers there. However, the state has been rocked by protest since then.

According to reports, there is a heavy rush at the shrine despite police restrictions. An official said that 700 people have been taken into preventive detention by the police over the last week. Hindu Aikya Vedi president K P Sasikala was also taken into custody on Saturday morning while she was on her way to Sabarimala shrine in traditional attire.

A source said that Sasikala was suspected to be "involved in a conspiracy to create trouble at Sannidhanam".

Meanwhile, after a over 14-hour stand-off, activist Trupti Desai reached Mumbai on Saturday and was escorted out of the airport by police and CISF personnel amid agitation by protesters.

Desai had to abort her attempt to proceed to Sabarimala as she was prevented from leaving the airport in Kochi by devotees and others opposing entry of menstrual age women into the Lord Ayyappa shrine.

Desai, who arrived in the early hours of Friday with young six women colleagues, announced at night that she would return as police informed her that there would be law and order problem if she visited the shrine, but vowed to come back to Kerala soon to have darshan of Lord Ayyappa.

"We were stopped at the airport. If they wanted to oppose us, they should have protested in Nilakkal but they knew that if we reached Nilakkal, we would advance to Pamba and return after darshan. So they were scared and stopped us at airport," Desai was quoted as saying by ANI in Mumbai.