Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, July 7: Undeterred by vagaries of weather and tough terrain, the unabated rush of Amarnath pilgrims continued as 15,593 yatris performed darshan of Ice Lingam at holy cave situated at an altitude of 13000 feet from sea level in South Kashmir district of Anantnag today.
According to an official spokesman, 15,593 pilgrims performed darshan at holy cave by this evening taking the total number of yatris paying obeisance to Shiv Lingam since the 48 day long yatra commenced on July 2 to 86,696.
The spokesman said almost equal number of pilgrims visited the cave shrine from both the tracks i.e traditional Nunwan-Pahalgam track as well as shortest Baltal route.
He said 7,381 pilgrims left for holy cave from Baltal track today while 6196 pilgrims left from Nunwan Pahalgam base camp. The yatris having night halt at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni also started their onwards journey this morning towards holy cave, he added.
He said majority of pilgrims, who performed darshan at cave shrine, have returned to Srinagar while others were on their way.
He said two pilgrims died of cardiac arrest enroute the holy cave shrine, taking the death toll in the ongoing pilgrimage to five.
The two pilgrims were identified as Sudharshan Biswas (62) of West Bengal and Vipin Palikar (57) of Mumbai. The duo died of cardiac arrest late last night at lower holy cave, spokesman said.
A 50-year-old woman tourist, Kavita Malhotra of Delhi, died at Baltal base camp yesterday. She had come from Sonamarg tourist resort to the base camp to know about the process and arrangements of the yatra but was not planning to undertake it this time.
Two pilgrims from Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, died on July 2 and 5.
The officials said the yatra was going on smoothly along both the routes – traditional 42-km Pahalgam route in Anantnag district and 14-km track in Ganderbal district.
As many as 7,913 pilgrims visited the cave shrine till 2 PM today, the officials said, adding 71,103 yatris have performed darshan of holy ‘Ice Lingam’ till yesterday. Spokesman said as many as 1,767 pilgrims left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here this morning for the cave shrine in South Kashmir.
The latest batch, comprising 1,266 men, 346 women, 150 sages and five Sadhus left in a cavalcade of 57 vehicles from Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 5.15 AM, under tight security.
With today’s batch of 11,772 pilgrims have left from the Jammu base camp for the pilgrimage, the official said.
Meanwhile, Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) has commissioned inquiries about issuing of fake registration permits by “fraudulent persons” to unregistered pilgrims desirous of undertaking the journey.
“The yatris are advised to be extremely careful and not to secure yatra permits from any unauthorised person as certain reports have been received that fraudulent persons were unlawfully issuing fake registration permits, against whom inquiries have already been commissioned,” CEO of the Board P K Tripathi said at a meeting chaired by Governor N N Vohra yesterday.
Tripathi said 2,47,634 yatris had obtained advance registration through 432 designated branches of Punjab National Bank, J&K Bank and Yes Bank, which are located in 32 States, till July 5.
“The advance registration for the current yatra had marked a significant improvement because of the sustained awareness campaign carried out by the Board throughout the past year,” he said, adding the largest number of pilgrims who had secured advance registration were from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
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