2 month long holy Amarnath yatra begins amid tight security

Avtar Bhat

Jubilant yatris dancing at Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas, Jammu before leaving for holy cave on Wednesday. — Excelsior/Rakesh
Jubilant yatris dancing at Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas, Jammu before leaving for holy cave on Wednesday. — Excelsior/Rakesh

JAMMU, July 1: With two -months long Shri Amarnath Yatra beginning here today the first batch of  1280 pilgrims drawn from different parts of country left for holy cave of  Lord Shiva situated at an altitude of 3888 meters in South Kashmir district of Anantnag under tight security arrangements.
Amidst chanting of Bum Bum Boley and Har Har Mahadev these yatris danced to the beatings of drums before boarding their buses at Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here for their onwards journey early this morning.
The yatra was flagged off by Minister of  Health, Medical Education , ARI and Trainings Ch Lal Singh who was accompanied by Minister of PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Ch Sukhnandan, Minister of State for Education and Culture Priya Sethi and MLAs Sat Sharma (CA) and Rajesh Gupta. Before flagging off the yatra, they also participated in the traditional pooja performed by a group of priests. Besides, senior civil and police officers were also present on the occasion.
The Yatris including men, women and children were in jubilant mood and enthusiastic to leave for darshan of Ice Lingam in Lidder Valley. The authorities have made tight security arrangements for the pilgrims and before their entry to Yatri Niwas they were subjected to thorough frisking by police and security agencies manning the Yatri Niwas.
The first batch of pilgrims comprising of 919 men, 191 women, 16 children and 154 Sadhus left in a cavalcade of 34 vehicles guarded by heavy contingent of CRPF personnel from Base camp here at 5.10 am.
The yatris will have a night halt at Baltal and Pahalgam base camps before leaving for holy cave tomorrow morning.
Though only 1200 pilgrims left for holy cave from Yatri Niwas here but as per reports over 8000 pilgrims have reached twin tracks of Baltal in Sonamarg and Nunwan at Pahalgam by this evening from different parts of country to leave for darshan of Ice Lingam tomorrow morning.
Talking to reporters here, Ch Lal Singh said the yatra has started and all arrangements have been made for comfort of pilgrims who have come from various places of country to pay obeisance at cave shrine of Lord Shiva. Ruling out any militant threat, he said these are only rumuors and yatra will proceed smoothly.
He said the Union Government led by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is keen for smooth pilgrimage and Government has made elaborate arrangements for the yatra. He said there are some people who have problem with the yatra since 1947 but their number is negligible while common Kashmiris fully support this yatra and they have rejected those elements who wanted that the duration of yatra be curtailed.
Mr Singh said the security is very strong and people in Kashmir are fully cooperating with this yatra.
Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Dr Pawan Kotwal said that security arrangements are proper for the pilgrims. He said the high dominated areas are manned by Army and yatra is given fully escort from base camp to holy cave to avert any untoward incident.
Regarding threat perception, he said the security agencies evaluate the threat perception and made security arrangements accordingly. He said there is proper arrangements for langers and other facilities for pilgrims from Lakhanpur to holy cave.
Meanwhile, as per reports 5,397 pilgrims have reached the base camp of Baltal which is the shortest track to holy cave in three batches up to this evening. Besides, over 3000 pilgrims have reached Nunwan Base Camp in Pahalgam to leave for holy cave from the traditional route tomorrow.
The weather on both the tracks is pleasant, said a police spokesman. He said arrangements are best for the pilgrims this time on the twin base camps and on both the tracks upto holy cave.
The Pahalgam track is 46 kilometers long while the Baltal track is 14 km long.
At Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas Additional DC Dr Piyush Singhla who is also Nodal Officer for yatra inaugurated a free langer for yatris jointly organized by  Shiv Shakti Vaishno Mandal, New Delhi and Shiv Sena Bal Thackeray. The organizers of Langer said that it will be available for service of pilgrims round the clock.

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