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Sabarimala Updates: Tension grips Kerala after women enter shrine

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Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 3: Massive prtotests broke out in different parts of Kerala after two women under the age of 50 entered the Sabarimala Shrine on Wednesday. The women, in their 40s, became the first female pilgrims of menstruating age to have achieved the feat after the Supreme Court overturned a traditional ban on women's entry last year.

Sabarimala
Sabarimala

The women Bindu (42), a CPI (ML) activist from Kozhikode district and Kanakadurga (44), said to be a civil supplies employee from Malappuram claimed to have begun their climb around midnight and reached the temple at 3.45 am, according to reports.

The shrine doors were shut for pilgrims and priests began conducting "shuddhi kalasham" (purification ritual).

Jan 02, 2019, 11:32 PM IST

"Protests at several locations in Kerala may affect passengers travelling from Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode. Passengers are requested to schedule their travel plans to/from airports accordingly," ANI quoted an Air India statement as saying.
Jan 02, 2019, 8:00 PM IST

"This morning at around 01:30 a.m, Kanaka Durga and I started from Pamba, reached Sannidhanam by around 3:30 a.m. and returned after darshan. We did not face any issues," says Bindu, one of the women who entered Sabarimala Temple.
Jan 02, 2019, 5:20 PM IST

Clash between BJP workers and the police during a protest over the entry of two women in Sabarimala temple in Thiruvananthapuram.
Jan 02, 2019, 4:14 PM IST

Social activist Trupti Desai Wednesday hailed the entry of two women below 50 years of age into the hill shrine in Kerala's Sabarimala, saying it is a "victory of equality". "This is a big victory for our agitation. It is a victory of equality. This is a good beginning for women in the new year", Desai told PTI from Pune. "Those against women's entry had openly thrown a challenge that no women in the 10-50 age group will be able to reach the 'sannidhanam'. Their agitation has now failed."
Jan 02, 2019, 4:13 PM IST

Senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat Wednesday said every woman has the right to worship at the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala in Kerala. "Every woman has the right to worship if they so wish," Karat told PTI, adding that the two women wanted to worship and they were enabled to do so. "They were given the security required (by the Kerala government)," the CPI(M) leader said.
Jan 02, 2019, 4:12 PM IST

No need for protests, says Rahul Easwar
Jan 02, 2019, 3:47 PM IST

BJP workers waved black flags at Devaswom minister Kadakampally Surendran in Guruvayur where he had gone to attend a function, PTI reported. Health minister K K Shylaja also had to face the ire of activists of the Yuva Morcha, the party's youth wing at Kannur, who showed black flags, they said. The protesters also took out a protest march in the state capital. In Kasaragod, they blocked traffic on the national highway.
Jan 02, 2019, 2:50 PM IST

The BJP will hold protests across Kerala for the next two days.
Jan 02, 2019, 2:50 PM IST

Sabarimala Karma Samiti has called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Kerala tomorrow to protest entry of two women into Lord Ayyappa shrine on Wednesday.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:59 PM IST

Widespread protests have broken in Kochi, Kottarakara, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:58 PM IST

Meanwhile, Rahul Easwer tweets..
Jan 02, 2019, 12:51 PM IST

Five BJP Mahila Morcha members protesting against two women entering Sabarimala Temple today, stopped from entering the state secretariat by police in Thiruvananthapuram.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:25 PM IST

Malayalam writer NS Madhavan just tweeted that the chief priest of Sabarimala should be removed for "misogyny and serious contempt of court". "Sabarimala closed for purification?" he asked. "Is this Kerala or some place in cow land? Women are new Dalits?"
Jan 02, 2019, 12:25 PM IST

"Have the Communists desecrated the Sabarimala shrine by facilitating the entry of women of restricted age group into the temple? Devastating, if true," said Amit Malviya, the BJP's IT cell head. Kerala is ruled by a Left Democratic Front government.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:24 PM IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Kerala president PS Sreedharan Pillai has called for protests after two women entered the Sabarimala temple in Kerala.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:23 PM IST

The Sabarimala sanctum has reopened for pilgrims after purification rituals.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:20 PM IST

The women claimed that Kerala police had ensured their security en route to Sabarimala on Wednesday. This is the second time that both the women attempted visiting the Sabarimala hill shrine. Their first attempt was abandoned after protests from Ayyappa devotees.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:20 PM IST

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed that the women went inside the sanctum sanctorum. "There were hurdles for women to climb and enter Sabarimala temple. If they have entered the temple today, there must not have been any hurdles. It is true that they have entered. Police had been given instructions to provide protection to any woman who wants to climb, Vijayan said.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:20 PM IST

Ayyappa Dharma Sena leader Rahul Easwar, who spearheaded the protests against the apex court's verdict allowing the entry of women below 50, said the chances of the two women making it inside the shrine are "extremely less" and that they would verify the footage and take appropriate action.
Jan 02, 2019, 12:20 PM IST

Women in the menstrual age group of 10 to 50 years were traditionally barred from visiting the Sabarimala temple. However, the Supreme Court had on September 28 reversed the verdict. This had led to widespread protests across Kerala. Over a dozen women tried but were stopped by a wall of protesters less than a km from the temple's entrance.

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