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Amarnath Yatra begins as pilgrims set out for cave shrine from Baltal, Nunwan base camps

Srinagar: The first batch of Amarnath Yatra pilgrims set off Thursday from the Baltal and Nunwan base camps towards the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said. The yatra started early in the morning from the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam route and the 14-km Baltal route. Pilgrims left from the Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam, in south Kashmir's Anantnag, and Baltal base camp in Sonamarg area of central Kashmir's Ganderbal, at the first light of the day, officials said. Chants of 'Bam Bam Bhole' and 'Har Har Mahadev' heralded the march of the pilgrims', whose faces bore marks of happiness despite the arduous trek ahead, not to speak of the weather's vagaries. "Baba has blessed us and there is tremendous excitement and enthusiasm around," a pilgrim from Gujarat said. He urged the wary to come for the yatra without any fear and asserted there was no need to be scared with all the security around. "There are very good arrangements. Security forces are deployed in large numbers. There is stringent security. Other arrangements also are up to the mark," another pilgrim said. Among the pilgrims was Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje, who took the Baltal route for the yatra. On Wednesday, the first batch of 5,892 yatris was flagged off from the yatra base camp in Jammu's Bhagwati Nagar by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. The pilgrims reached the Kashmir Valley in the afternoon and received a rousing welcome from the administration and locals. The devotees are on their way to the cave shrine, the site of an ice-formation widely revered as a shivling that lasts only for a brief period, before it melts. Authorities have made elaborate security arrangements for the safety of the pilgrims, who visit the place which has been especially fraught since the April 22 gunning down of 26 men in Pahalgam by terrorists. Thousands of security personnel from police and several paramilitary forces have been deployed, and aerial surveillance mounted, along the yatra route. The 38-day pilgrimage will conclude on August 9. (With inputs from PTI) Amid tight security, the second batch of more than 5,200 pilgrims left the base camp here on Thursday for the Amarnath cave shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas, officials said. The 38-day pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre-high shrine commenced on Thursday via the twin tracks -- the traditional 48-km-long Nunwan-Pahalgam route in Anantnag district and the 14-km shorter but steeper Baltal route in Ganderbal district. The yatra will conclude on August 9. The pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in a cavalcade of 168 vehicles escorted by security police and central paramilitary forces, they said. With this, the number of pilgrims who have left for the shrine from the Jammu base camp has reached 11,138, officials said. The second batch of pilgrims includes 4,074 men, 786 women, and 19 children. A group of pilgrims on the way to the shrine said they were not deterred by the April 22 Pahalgam attack that left 26 people dead. "We do not fear terrorists or Pakistan, which has engineered attacks on innocent and unarmed tourists. It is a cowardly act. They cannot stop us from paying obeisance at Baba Barfani by triggering fear through terror incidents such as Pahalgam," Harish Kumar, a resident of Raipur and part of a 37-member group of devotees, said. Like him, Mukhtar Singh, who left for Amarnath along with a group of 20 members from Kanpur, said they do not have the slightest fear. "The increasing number of pilgrims thronging the yatra will send a befitting reply to terrorists and Pakistan that we do not fear them," he said. So far, more than 3.5 lakh people have registered themselves online for the pilgrimage. (PTI) Over 12,000 pilgrims had 'darshan' of the naturally formed ice 'Shivling' in the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas on the first day of the pilgrimage on Thursday, officials said. "A total of 12,348 pilgrims paid obeisance at the 3,880-metre high cave shrine on the first day of the pilgrimage," they said. The officials said that it included 9,181 male pilgrims, 2,223 female pilgrims, 99 children, 122 sadhus, seven sadhvis and eight transgenders. The officials further said that they had not expected such a high number of pilgrims to attend the pilgrimage on the very first day, especially in the wake of the deadly Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 this year. Unprecedented security measures have been taken to ensure a smooth pilgrimage this year.

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