Cloudburst near Amarnath shrine: 16 pilgrims dead, over 40 missing

At least 16 pilgrims died and over 40 were missing after a massive cloudburst hit Baltal base camp of Shri Amarnath yatra in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district on Friday.

The cloud burst occurred at around 5:30 pm and it triggered flash floods, officials said. At least 16 pilgrims died, five were rescued while over 40 are still missing. More than two dozen tents and three langars were reportedly washed away by the floods.

“So far bodies of 10 pilgrims have been recovered,” a senior NDRF official said.

J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the incident.

“Spoke to Hon'ble PM & Hon'ble HM and briefed about the incident. Hon'ble PM & Hon'ble HM has assured all the help. Our priority is to save the lives of people. Instructions have been issued to provide all necessary assistance to pilgrims. I am closely monitoring the situation (sic),” office of LG J&K tweeted.

In another tweet he said, “Deeply pained by unfortunate incident of cloudburst at Shri Amarnathji holy cave, in which precious lives have been lost. I send my heartfelt condolences to bereaved families. Rescue operation by NDRF, SDRF, BSF, Army, JKP & Shrine board admin is in progress.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while expressing anguish over the incident, tweeted: “Anguished by the cloud burst near Shree Amarnath cave. Condolences to the bereaved families. Spoke to @manojsinha_ Ji and took stock of the situation. Rescue and relief operations are underway. All possible assistance is being provided to the affected.”

The 43-day annual Yatra began on June 30, from the twin base camps of Nunwan in Pahalgam of south Kashmir’s Anantnag and Baltal camp in Ganderbal district. In the first nine days of the yatra, over one lakh pilgrims have offered their prayers at the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Lord Shiva in the upper reaches of the south Himalayas.

This year the pilgrimage is expected to see higher than usual attendance of pilgrims as it is resuming after a gap of three years. The annual yatra was canceled in 2020 as well as 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019 it was cut short following intelligence inputs of terror threats ahead of the Centre scrapping Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.

The yatra to the holy cave shrine will culminate, as per the tradition, on the day of Raksha Bandhan, on August 11.