183 pilgrims leave for twin base camps from Jammu city

PTI

Jammu, August 5

Over 180 pilgrims left Jammu city for the twin base camps of 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said on Friday.

A total of 183 pilgrims left in the 36th batch from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here in a convoy of eight vehicles amid heavy security of the CRPF this morning, the officials said.

They said 62 pilgrims heading for Baltal were the first to leave the Bhagwati Nagar camp in three vehicles followed by the second convoy of five vehicles ferrying 121 pilgrims for Pahalgam. With this, a total of 1,44,490 pilgrims have left from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for the Valley since June 29, the day the first batch of pilgrims was flagged off by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha.

The annual 43-day yatra commenced on June 30 from the twin routes — traditional 48-km-long Nunwan-Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag and 14-km shorter Baltal in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district. The yatra is scheduled to end on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. A total of 36 persons mostly pilgrims have died during the on-going Amarnath yatra till Friday, excluding 15 pilgrims, who died in the flash floods at Amarnath cave shrine on July 1.

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