Over 100 injured, three serious during village fair ritual of beating others with sticks

BALLARI: Over 100 people sustained injuries, three of them seriously, during an annual fair where people fight with each other with sticks as part of a ritual, on Tuesday night in a border village.

Over 100 people were injured during the rituals of beating others with sticks.

Every year, on the night of Vijayadashami, a fair is held at the Malamalleshwara Swami temple atop a hill in the reserve forest area of the border village Neraniki in Andhra Pradesh. Thousands of devotees converge at the temple for the Kalyanotsava of Malamma and Malleshwara Swami and the idol of Malleshwara Swami is placed in a palanquin and taken out in procession.

The procession is taken out past midnight.

As per tradition, residents of villages nearby try to take the procession to their village and, in the process, fight with each other with sticks. The ritual is usually held between 1 am and 3 am. This, year, more than one hundred people were injured during the ritual of whom three are in serious condition.