Over 2 lakh pilgrims have performed Darshan at the Amarnath Cave shrine in just 11 days, with more than “17,000 pilgrims on Sunday paying their obeisance to Lord Shiva in the south Kashmir Himalayas, taking the total number of Yatris to 2,00,063,” officials said.
A total of 17,317 pilgrims performed ‘darshan’ at the 3,800-meter-high holy cave shrine on Sunday, the officials said. The fresh arrival of 12,210 men, 4,202 women, 264 children, 103 Sadhus, 18 Sadhvis, six Transgender and 514 security force personnel paid their respects at the holy cave shrine.
LG Manoj, while expressing joy and gratitude, posted on X, “With Baba Amarnath Ji’s blessings, the holy pilgrimage has crossed the 2 lakh mark today. This is a sacred journey of a lifetime, and I welcome all the devotees to discover and experience the divinity. Har Har Mahadev!”
Meanwhile, a fresh batch of over 6,000 pilgrims left Jammu base camp on early Monday for the Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir’s Himalayas, officials said.
Officials stated, “Another batch of 6,143 Yatris left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in two escorted convoys for the Valley today.”
The first escorted cavalcade of 100 vehicles carrying 2,215 Yatris left at 3:30 am for the Baltal base camp, while the second escorted cavalcade of 135 vehicles carrying 3,928 Yatris left at 4 am at the interval of 30 minutes.
The authorities have made extensive multi-tier security arrangements for this year’s Yatra, as Yatra takes place after the deadly Pahalgam terror attack in which terrorists shot dead 26 people, mostly tourists, in Baisaran meadow on April 22.
Officials said since the beginning of the Yatra on July 3, over 2 lakh pilgrims had ‘darshan’ inside the holy cave shrine so far.
With this fresh departure, a total of over 89,000 pilgrims have left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu for the Kashmir Valley since Wednesday, after the yatra was flagged off by the LG Manoj Sinha from Jammu.
The yatra goes on as usual, amid tight security arrangements, despite the April 22 Pahalgam attack. So far, more than 3.5 lakh people have registered online for the pilgrimage, while the numbers are likely to surge in the coming days after the J&K administration established special counters for offline registration.
Last year, more than 5.10 lakh Yatris paid obeisance at the cave shrine.
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