Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the first batch of over 4,809 Amarnath pilgrims from Jammu’s Bhagwati Nagar base camp, who later reached Kashmir Valley and received a warm welcome from authorities and locals.
The annual Amarnath Yatra began early on Friday, with the first batches of pilgrims leaving the twin base camps of Baltal and Nunwan for the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said. The shrine houses a naturally formed ice lingam.
The pilgrimage started early in the morning along the two routes to the shrine — the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam track and the 14-km Baltal track — amid intermittent rain. The 57-day yatra will continue till August 28, with stringent security arrangements in place for its smooth conduct.
Officials said batches of pilgrims, including men, women and sadhus, left the Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district and the Baltal base camp in the Sonamarg area of central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district at first light.
The chants of ‘bum bum bole’ filled the air as the batches were flagged off from the base camps by the respective deputy commissioners and SSPs, they said.
On Thursday, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the first batch of over 4,809 pilgrims from the yatra base camp at Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu. The pilgrims reached the Kashmir Valley in the afternoon and received a rousing welcome from the administration and locals.
