Over 24,000 perform darshan on day 3 at holy cave, 6,700 leave for twin base camps
Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, July 5: Over 24,000 pilgrims drawn from the different parts of the country paid obeisance at holy cave of Baba Barfani in deep Himalayas in South Kashmir district of Anantnag on the third day of darshan today....
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, July 5: Over 24,000 pilgrims drawn from the different parts of the country paid obeisance at holy cave of Baba Barfani in deep Himalayas in South Kashmir district of Anantnag on the third day of darshan today.
As per reports, 24,648 pilgrims from twin tracks of Baltal and Pahalgam-Chandanwari paid obeisance at holy cave situated at an altitude of 3888 meters by this evening. It may be recalled that during last two days after the yatra started on Friday 32,313 pilgrims had paid obeisance at cave shrine. With 24,648 yatris performing darshan today a total of 56,961 pilgrims visited cave shrine during last three days.
Reports said that the weather in the shrine area was partially cloudy but the yatra proceeded smoothly during entire day from both the tracks. The pilgrims who performed darshan today returned towards their respective base camps by the evening.
There is heavy rush of pilgrims right from Baltal and Nandiwan base camps to holy cave as thousands of pilgrims are daily reporting the twin base camps from different parts of the country to embark on pilgrimage of Barfani Baba despite the appeals of the administration to pilgrims not to proceed for darshan prior to their due date.
Meanwhile, a fresh batch of over 6,700 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here early Sunday for the Amarnath shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas under tight security, officials said.
The batch including 1,310 women and 22 children, left the Jammu base camp in two separate convoys at 3 am and 3.40 am, the officials said.
This was the fourth batch of pilgrims leaving Jammu for Kashmir since July 2, when Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the yatra from here.
With this, a total of 20,220 pilgrims have left the Jammu base camp for the valley so far.
The pilgrimage is being conducted simultaneously via the traditional 48-km Pahalgam route in Anantnag district and the shorter 14-km Baltal route in Ganderbal district.
The officials said the first convoy, carrying 2,590 pilgrims in 152 vehicles, left for the Baltal base camp, while the second convoy, comprising 4,131 pilgrims in 139 vehicles, proceeded to the Pahalgam base camp to undertake the pilgrimage.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Saturday urged unregistered pilgrims planning to undertake the yatra to postpone their journey by a few days, saying all registration slots have been booked till July 9 due to an unprecedented influx of devotees.
Officials also announced that beginning Sunday, only registered pilgrims will be permitted to proceed towards Kashmir, while unregistered devotees will be stopped at the designated checkpoints until fresh registration quotas become available.
There is heavy influx of pilgrims in Jammu too as thousands of yatris are daily reporting here from different parts of the country to leave for darshan.
Huge rush of pilgrims was seen at Registration and token distribution counters near Tawi riverfront, Ram Mandir, Purani Mandi and Geeta Bhawan.
Long queues of pilgrims are seen in front of registration and token counters from early in the morning. Reports said that 5000 yatris were registered for different dates of pilgrimage here today.
