First batch of 1,280 pilgrims head for Amarnath yatra base camps

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 1

Amidst tight security arrangements, the first batch of Amarnath pilgrims was flagged off this morning from the fortified Yatri Niwas base camp at Bhagwati Nagar here for the two base camps for the yatra to the Amarnath cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas.

The first batch of 1,280 pilgrims, including 919 men, 191 women, 16 children and 154 sadhus, left for the cave shrine in a convoy of 34 vehicles.

Amidst religious hymns and chants of “Har Har Mahadev” by pilgrims in buses and light motor vehicles, the convoy was flagged off by Health Minister Lal Singh, PHE, Flood Control and Irrigation Minister Sukhnandan Choudhary, Minister of State for Education Priya Sethi and BJP MLA Sat Sharma early this morning at 5.10 am.

Devotees go either through the Baltal or Pahalgam route to reach the cave shrine at a height of 14,500 ft. The shrine has an ice Shivaling, which is a stalagmite that waxes and wanes with the phases of moon. The traditional Pahalgam route covers 46 km while the 14-km Baltal route is more steep and arduous.

After the flag-off, the BJP ministers said all arrangements were put in place for safety and comfort of the pilgrims, who come from various parts of the country to pay obeisance at the cave shrine.

“The administration is fully geared up to provide facilities such as accommodation, drinking water, electricity, healthcare and telephone connectivity to the pilgrims at the base camps as well as en route,” said Lal Singh.

The first batch reached the twin base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam for their onward journey to the cave shrine this evening.

A total of 2,04,508 pilgrims have already secured advance registration and 22,104 had purchased helicopter tickets from Baltal and Pahalgam to Panjtarni, near the cave shrine. An on-the-spot registration is also on.

“Our parties equipped with weapons escorted the first batch,” a CRPF officer said. Nearly 90 companies of the CRPF, Jammu and Kashmir Police, IRP, SSB, ITBP and the BSF have been mobilised to ensure a peaceful pilgrimage this year. Army commandos have been deployed on higher reaches of cave shrine.

Home secretary LC Goyal, on June 29 had visited the Panjtarni halting station on the traditional Pahalgam-Amarnath route to take stock of the arrangements for the yatra.