The Hindu : National : Pilgrims resume Amarnath yatra

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Pilgrims resume Amarnath yatra

Srinagar: The Amarnath yatra continued on Friday with 11,000 pilgrims offering prayers at the Himalayan cave shrine of Lord Shiva after a brief break forced by bad weather even as six more pilgrims died on the yatra route.

The two-month yatra was suspended after heavy rains in the morning that left the tracks to the 12,750-ft-high cave shrine in Pahalgam district of Jammu and Kashmir slippery and unsafe, officials said.

Pilgrims stranded at various points were however allowed to take the traditional Pahalgam and shorter Baltal routes after the weather cleared in the afternoon, they said.

They said 6,000 pilgrims from Chandanwari and 5,000 from Baltal paid obeisance to the naturally formed ice Shivalingam at the Amarnath cave.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani visited there in a helicopter, offered prayers and stayed for an hour before returning to Delhi.

Devotees headed for Amarnath from Baltal and Nunwan base camps but no fresh batch was allowed out of Jammu base camp.

Six more pilgrims including an elderly woman died en route to the cave shrine since Thursday evening, taking the death toll in this year’s yatra to 10, the officials added.

Meanwhile, the Srinagar Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court on Friday ordered a probe into the case against Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board CEO Arun Kumar for allegedly making statements “that are likely to create communal disturbance.”

— PTI

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