Amarnath Yatra resumes along Pahalgam route

The Amarnath Yatra resumed on Friday from the traditional Pahalgam route in south Kashmir, two days after it was suspended due to inclement weather.

However, the pilgrimage along Baltal route in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district was halted for the third consecutive day due to landslides.

The yatra was suspended on Wednesday on both routes in the wake of heavy rain which caused landslides at several places.

A spokesman of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) said that the annual pilgrimage resumed from Pahalgam base camps on Friday afternoon after the improvement in weather conditions.

He said the yatra remained suspended from the Baltal route due to landslides near the base camp and in Danibagh area on the Srinagar-Leh national highway.

No fresh batch of 'Yatris' were allowed to move from Jammu towards the cave shrine in Kashmir. “No pilgrim has departed the Bhagwati Nagar 'yatri niwas' (Jammu) for the cave shrine,” the spokesman said.

Officials said thousands of pilgrims were stranded at both the base camps of Baltal and Nunwan-Pahalgam. Despite bad weather conditions, in the first eight days of the pilgrimage, over 68,000 yatris had darshan of the Shivling at the holy cave since the yatra began on June 28.

A police officer said on Friday that two yatris were injured after the bus they were travelling in met with an accident at Ganiwan in Kangan on Srinagar-Leh highway on Friday.

Three pilgrims were killed and four injured when they came under a landslide between Brarimarg and Railpathri on Baltal route on Tuesday night while two pilgrims were killed by shooting stones over the past three days.

Six others died due to cardiac arrest since the pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre high shrine began, taking the death toll in this year’s pilgrimage to 12.