Kathmandu, Sep 4 - The Pashupatinath temple row took an ugly turn in Nepal Friday with a mob assaulting the two newly appointed Indian priests, stripping them naked and tearing off their sacred threads regarded as mandatory for Brahmins.

Girish Bhatt and Raghavendra Bhatt, the two newly appointed Indian priests, were brought from Karnataka state in India this month to continue the nearly 800-year-old tradition at the revered Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu of employing priests only from the orthodox southern states of India.

The two hapless men were thrashed within the temple premises Friday as they were readying to worship the deity from Saturday.

Eyewitnesses said about eight to 10 men, armed with iron rods, stormed a secret room in the temple where the two priests had been confined two days ago, fasting and undergoing a purifying ritual so that they would be able to undertake the ritualistic worship from Saturday.

The invaders broke open the padlock on the door of the room, dragged the two stunned priests out and beat them up. The attackers also stripped the two men naked and forcibly took video pictures.

Then, in a final insult to the two priests, their sacred white thread were torn off. The priests wear these sacred threads to proclaim that they are Brahmins and have undergone traditional rituals.

'The attackers tried to drag them away,' said an eyewitness who did not want to be named. 'But the abduction bid was foiled after the people in the temple raised a hue and cry and locals gathered.'

The two shaken priests have been taken to a safe place, temple officials said.

The attack inside the temple comes after protests began Sunday with at least three organisations banding together to oppose the appointment of Indian priests.