July 10: Amid rains and adverse weather conditions, over 19300 yatris performed darshan at the holy cave shrine of Shri Amarnath Ji in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district today.With this, a fresh batch of 4, 627 pilgrims left the Jammu based Bhagwati Nagar base camp of the yatra for the twin base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam in Kashmir valley for their onward journey towards the shrine.Officials told that amid chanting of religious slogans like “Bum Bum Bhole,” a total of 19,361 pilgrims, who reached the holy cave shrine from the twin base camps of Baltal-Sonamarg in Central Kashmir district of Ganderbal and Nunwan-Pahalgam in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district by braving the adverse weather conditions, had darshan of the holy Ice Lingam with proper security arrangements put in place.
After performing the darshan, they said, the yatris, including men, women, children, Sadhus and Sadhvis, headed back towards Panchtarni, the last camp on the Chandanwari track to the holy cave and Baltal base camp.
With 19,361 pilgrims visiting the cave shrine today, officials said, a total of 2,50,377 yatris have thus far paid the obeisance at the holy cave shrine in the Himalayan region this year. The 52-day-long annual pilgrimage began on June 29 and will conclude on August 19.
Meanwhile, a fresh batch of 4,627 pilgrims left the Jammu based Bhagwati Nagar base camp of the yatra in 185 vehicles for Baltal and Pahalgam base camps in Kashmir valley.
Among the 4627 yatris, 1,854, including 1,267 male, 537 females, 14 children, 27 Sadhus, and 9 Sadhvis headed towards Baltal axis in 90 vehicles and the remaining 2,773 yatris including 2,155 males, 490 females, 12 children, 110 Sadhus, and 6 Sadhvis left towards Pahalgam axis in the 95 vehicles escorted by security personnel.
With this, a total of 72,325 pilgrims have left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu for the Kashmir Valley since June 28, when Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the first batch of the yatra. Pertinently, over 4.5 lakh yatris had darshan of the holy ice lingam last year.
