60 protesters held in TN over women's entry into Sabarimala

The Hindu Makkal Katchi activists were prevented from staging the protest at a railway station in Coimbatore, the police said.

Fifteen members of the Bharatiya Janata Party lawyers' wing here burnt a portrait of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. They raised slogans against him for failing to maintain the shrine's "sanctity".

In view of the one-day hartal in Kerala over the issue, the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation suspended services to that state from here. About 25 bus services were cancelled, police said.

Ten Hanuman Sena activists have urged the Union Home Ministry to take note of the incident, alleging that it had "hurt the sentiments of Hindus" and sought necessary action against the Kerala government.

Kanakadurga (44) and Bindu (42) had made history when they stepped into the hallowed precincts of the Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala early on Wednesday, breaking a centuries-old tradition and defying dire threats from the Hindu right.

It came over three months after the Supreme Court's historic judgment that lifted the ban on the entry of girls and women between 10-50 years into the shrine of Lord Ayyappa, its "eternally-celibate" deity.