Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, July 15: With 17,515 pilgrims paying obeisance in holy cave today, the two month -long Amarnath yatra which started on July 1 from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here crossed the two lakh mark in first fortnight.
According to an official spokesman, 17,515 pilgrims performed darshan in cave shrine situated at an altitude of 3888 meters in deep Himalayas in South Kashmir’s district of Anantnag today. With this, the total number of pilgrims performing darshan of naturally formed ice Lingam in cave shrine touched 2,03,565 in first 15 days of yatra.
The spokesman said the yatra is picking up day by day and there is complete hustle and bustle at twin base camps of Baltal and Nunwan Pahalgam with thousands of pilgrims reaching daily there for their onwards journey to holy cave.
The spokesman said 8185 pilgrims left the Baltal base camp for holy cave by foot early this morning while 815 left by chopper. He said 8697 pilgrims left from Nunwan -Pahalgam base Camp via traditional Chandanwari track to holy cave for darshan this morning and after a night halt at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni they will reach cave shrine two days later.
He said the pilgrims having night halt at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni camps also started trekking towards cave shrine this morning.
He said 806 pilgrims returned to Baltal by chopper after performing darshan at holy cave.
Meanwhile, one CRPF Jawan, posted near cave shrine died today after cardiac arrest. He has been identified as Sunil Kumar Yadav, 33, a resident of UP.
Quoting delayed information, the officials said two more pilgrims died a day earlier near the cave and with this the toll in ongoing yatra has touched 13. They were identified as Narindera Bhai Patel who breathed his last at Chandanwari and Joysha Sham Singh 37 of Ambala who breathed at Zojibal.
Spokesman said about 7000 pilgrims are camping at Baltal at present while more were on their way from Srinagar. Besides 3000 pilgrims are also camping at Nunwan and Pahalgam while more were on their way towards the base camp.
He said another batch of 2415 pilgrims left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in a cavalcade of 60 vehicles early this morning for holy cave under tight security arrangements.
They included 1705 male, 561 female, 52 children and 97 Sadhus. All these vehicles had crossed Jawahar Tunnel by this evening and were on their way to twin base camps of Nunwan in Pahalgam and Baltal in Sonamarag.
Meanwhile, Dr Piyush Singla Additional DC Jammu, who is also Nodal Officer for yatra, said that all the stranded yatris have been cleared from Jammu during the last two days and the yatra was going on smoothly.
Follow our WhatsApp channel