Amarnath yatra resumes from Baltal route

“With the improvement in the weather conditions,the pilgrimage was resumed this morning from Baltal route,” an official at the yatra control room at Baltal,110 kms from Srinagar,said.

He said 12,700 yatris have left the base camp for the holy cave shrine.

Light snowfall at the cave and incessant rains on Thursday night along the Baltal track had forced authorities to suspend the yatra as the track had been rendered slippery at many places.

The pilgrimage was also going on smoothly from the traditional Pahalgam route in Anantnag district as a fresh batch of 4,000 pilgrims started their two days trek to the cave shrine.

“The yatra was stopped from Jammu in view of bad weather conditions and heavy rush of pilgrims at the cave shrine and enroute from Baltal and Pahalgam routes,” a senior police official said.

He said,“No fresh batch of pilgrims was allowed to move towards Amarnath from Jammu base camp today.”

Besides this,over 1,000 Amarnath-bound pilgrims were stopped at various places enroute Jammu-Srinagar national highway at Udhampur,Nagrota,Ramban and Patnitop areas and provided lodging facilities since last night.

Nearly 70,000 pilgrims have already paid obeisance at the cave shrine of Amarnath in the first three days since the yatra began on June 29.

Over 2.50 lakh pilgrims have registered for the annual yatra this year but the number is expected to cross four lakh by the end of the pilgrimage on August 13 as many pilgrims have not registered themselves.