'Police provided security to women who entered Sabarimala temple'

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the two women who entered the Sabarimala temple early Wednesday were given police protection during their trek to the shrine. The two women in their 40s entered the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala and offered prayers.

"Earlier, women were not able to enter the temple due to certain hurdles. They may have entered the shrine today because they would not have faced any issues. It is a fact that the women have entered Sabarimala. Police have given them security," Vijayan told media here.

Despite the Supreme Court's verdict on September 28 last year, permitting women in the 10-50 age group, no children or young women in the 'barred' group were able to offer prayers at the shrine following frenzied protests by devotees and right-wing outfits.

The two women, identified as Kanakadurga (42) and Bindu (42), wearing the traditional black dress, with their heads covered, climbed the hill shrine at 3.38 am Wednesday.

The women trekked to the hill a day after the state-sponsored 620-km-long human wall of women was formed Tuesday from Kasargode in the northern part of the state till the southernmost district of Thiruvananthapuram.

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