JAMMU: The largest group of pilgrims to date, numbering over 9,200, departed from this base camp early on Thursday for the Amarnath shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas. At 3.30 am, a second convoy of 112 cars carrying 3,206 pilgrims left for the Baltal base camp while 6,035 pilgrims left in a convoy of 194 vehicles for Pahalgam. Since June 30, a total of 65,544 pilgrims have travelled from the Jammu base camp to the valley. Since July 1, 1,46,508 pilgrims have prayed at the site in total.Beginning on July 1 from the twin roads of Pahalgam in the Anantnag district and Baltal in the Ganderbal district, the 62-day annual pilgrimage to the 3,888-meter-high cave sanctuary began. The yatra is scheduled to conclude on August 31.
