Amarnath pilgrimage begins after two-year gap
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday flagged off the first batch of Amarnath pilgrims as 4,890 devotees set off for the holy cave shrine from Jammu base camp amidst religious rituals. The 43-day pilgrimage is being organised after a gap of two years due to Covid restrictions and will conclude on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
Having Trouble Telling the Story Behind Your Brand?
The LG flagged off a convoy of 176 buses and other vehicles carrying pilgrims on their inward journey to the twin base camps of Baltal and Pahalgam in Kashmir. Prior to the formal flagging off of the first batch of annual pilgrims, the LG prayed for the peace, prosperity and safe spiritual journey of pilgrims. Amid chants of ‘Bam Bam Bhole’ and ‘Jai Barfani Baba ki’, the pilgrims boarded vehicles under tight security arrangements.
Divya Sethi, a pilgrim from Delhi, said that she has previously visited the cave shrine five times with her family and friends but could not do so for the last two years. Another pilgrim Rakesh Jaiswal from Rajasthan said, “We were eagerly waiting for this moment for the past over two years.” When asked about any apprehension about security threats, he said there was no fear among pilgrims. “Every year threats are issued by terror outfits. There is nothing new in it and every year devotees of Lord Shiva come to pay obeisance,” said Jyoti Devi from Punjab.
Meanwhile, multi-tier security arrangements have been put in place in and around the base camps, lodging, registration and token centres with the deployment of over 5,000 security personnel in Jammu city alone. According to officials, over three lakh pilgrims have registered for the annual Yatra so far. For monitoring the pilgrimage, the J&K government has introduced a radio frequency identification system to track the movement and well-being of pilgrims and no vehicle without the sticker (radio frequency identification tag) will be allowed to proceed towards the cave shrine.
Over 3.42 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the shrine from July 1 to August 1, 2019, before the government cancelled the pilgrimage midway ahead of the nullification of Articles 370 and 35A in August that year. In 2020 and 2021, the Yatra was conducted symbolically with just the mahants taking the holy mace to the Amarnath shrine in a chopper because of the pandemic.
