Holy mace reaches Panchtarni, 342 perform darshan

Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 20:  The annual Amarnath pilgrimage will culminate tomorrow with performance of darshan by Chhari Mubarak (holy mace) at cave shrine situated at an altitude of 14,000 feet in deep Himalayas in South Kashmir district of Anantnag.
The holy mace led by Mahant Deepender Giri reached Panchtarni the last stop to holy cave on Chandanwari track this afternoon. After a night halt at Chandanwari, it will leave for the darshan of ice Lingam in holy cave early tomorrow morning. It will perform darshan and Pooja archana in the cave shrine in a traditional manner. Later it will return to Panchtarni in the evening on its way to Pahalgam and Dashnami Akhara Srinagar.  With this the 55 day long annual yatra to Swami Amarnath will culminate. A large number of Sadhus and devotees are accompanying the holy mace.
Meanwhile 342 pilgrims performed darshan at cave shrine today. With this total number of pilgrims performing darshan in holy cave since the annual Amarnath yatra started on June 28 has reached 3,53,784 an official spokesman said.
He said the weather at holy cave and on two tracks was cloudy and it drizzled during the day also. He said the traditional Chandanwari track was closed for yatris from 11,000 hours yesterday but 188 pilgrims left for cave shrine from Baltal camp via shortest track.