Pilgrims to Amarnath decline after terror attack

Jammu, July 24: Recent terror attacks at Pahalgam city have led to a sudden reduction in the number of devotees undertaking the Amarnath yatra.

A batch of 793 pilgrims, the lowest number so far, today left for the 14500-foot-high holy cave shrine in south Kashmir under tight security cover.

The batch comprising 57 men, 124 women, 14 children and 198 sadhus left the base camp of Maulana Azad Memorial (MAM) stadium here at around 0500 hrs, officials said, adding that the convoy, consisting of 25 vehicles including 20 buses and five light motor vehicles (LMV), is expected to reach Nunwan in Pahalgam and Baltal base camps by the evening.

There has been a dip in the number of devotees undertaking the yatra since the grenade attack at Baltal camp on July 17 in which one person was killed and several others were injured. Another grenade attack on the community kitchen for pilgrims at Pahalgam on July 21 left 15 injured, causing high security concerns among the pilgrims with many deciding against undertaking the yatra.

The number of pilgrims visiting the holy shrine has also reduced and in the past few days only 2000 to 2500 pilgrims are paying obeisance at the ice lingam at the holy cave shrine at Amarnath every day.

Meanwhile, with today's batch, a total of 40,596 pilgrims have left from Jammu base camp for Amarnath since the commencement of the yatra on July 2.

UNI