Incident free pilgrimage continues under hawk eye vigil of uniformed personnel
Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, July 8: It’s not the conflict hit Indo-Pak border or the Line of Control (LoC) but the busy Jammu area near the bank of river Tawi where making a continuous hawk eye vigil at every movement of the people moving around and holding a fully loaded sophisticated gun with his fingers on the trigger, a uniformed man stands in a temporary made security post outside the main entrance of Shri Amarnath Yatri Niwas to thwart any nefarious design of the disruptive and terrorist elements at the Bhagwati Nagar base camp of the pilgrimage while the fearless pilgrims from almost every nook and corner of the country continue entering and leaving the place of rest made for them amidst chanting religious slogans like “Har Har Mahadev and Bum Bum Bole.”
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Another soldier, from CRPF, stands guard near the place where tents for the troops have been fixed while cops from J&K Police were also seen frisking the visiting pilgrims at the entrance gates of Yatri Niwas and checking their Yatra related documents.
Under this tight security arrangement, the annual pilgrimage of Shri Amarnath Ji continues to the mountainous Kashmir giving busy time and more business to the market outside the Yatri Niwas in Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu while many e-rickshaws and other vehicles were also seen busy in ferrying the pilgrims in the area and some of the visiting pilgrims were seen in the nearby shops making certain purchases and others asking for prices of the commodities.
“Baba Ki Nagri Mein Sab Achcha Hai. Jo Sankat Nahi Seh Sakta, Wo Bhole Baba K Darshan Kya Karega (all is well in the land of Lord Shiva. How can one have a glimpse/blessing of Shiva if he is not willing to face problems),” said a devotionally charged pilgrim-Manoj Gupta, 31, from Ganga Nagar area of Rajasthan.
Deepak, 51, from Madhya Pradesh claimed that for the last 34 years he is continuously performing Amarnath pilgrimage and over the years he has seen sky changes in the arrangements for the annual religious event.
“Earlier we used to stay at Langars in Kashmir which was a totally free of cost service but now there are base camps at Baltal and Pahalgam where the tent owners charge at their own will and there is none to check this,” he said adding: “While in Jammu we have home like feelings but we find Kashmir disturbed most of the time.”
Pardeep Gupta, 50, from Lucknow informed that he is at the Yatri Niwas in Bhagwati Nagar now waiting for his turn to perform the holy Amarnath Ji pilgrimage for the second time and he found the arrangements this time better than what he found in his first visit.
He said that he found people of J&K always welcoming and loving.
“Apart from religious purpose the visit to J&K gives me a relief from routine chores of life,” Anjali Batra, 48, a homemaker from Gwalior said adding that she will now perform Amarnath Ji pilgrimage for the second time.
Similarly, Simran, 35, from Barnala (Punjab), also a homemaker said that she along with her family and other relatives perform Amarnath pilgrimage every year in a group and as per her experience she finds the arrangements made by the authorities for the pilgrimage as best and people of J&K very much welcoming and accommodating.
Similar views were echoed by Devinder Rawat, 60, a shopkeeper from Jhansi area of UP and others accompanying him.
Shailesh Gupta, 64, a retired Government employee from Jabalpur said that he along with a group including his relatives and friends are here for the pilgrimage but he along with three others have got online registration for July 28 while his other colleagues are performing the Yatra within 2-3 days.
“I tried to change my Yatra date but no success has been achieved so far and if it remains unchanged then I will have to miss my group,” he maintained adding that the authorities should look into the issue.
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