Amarnath Yatra suspended from Jammu resulting from inclement climate

By PTI

JAMMU: The Amarnath Yatra has been suspended from Jammu resulting from inclement climate circumstances and no recent batch was allowed to proceed from right here to the bottom camps of the three,880-metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, officers mentioned.

A flash flood triggered by a cloudburst close to the cave shrine on Friday afternoon has led to the demise of least 16 individuals. Around 40 persons are nonetheless lacking.

“Amarnath Yatra has been suspended from Jammu to twin base camps in Kashmir due to inclement weather. No fresh batch was allowed to move towards Amarnath” an official mentioned.

The annual 43-day pilgrimage commenced from the dual base camps — Nunwan-Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag and Baltal in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal — on June 30.

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Over one lakh pilgrims have provided prayers on the cave shrine, housing the naturally fashioned ice ‘shivling’, the officers mentioned.

A complete of 69,535 pilgrims have left in 10 batches from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu for the Valley since June 29, the day the primary batch of pilgrims was flagged off by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha. The yatra is scheduled to finish on August 11 on the event of Raksha Bandhan.