The annual pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas resumed on Thursday morning after remaining suspended for most part of the day on Wednesday due to heavy rain, officials said.
The yatra resumed in the morning with fresh batches comprising over 1,800 pilgrims leaving the base camps for the cave shrine, where over 500 pilgrims also offered their prayers, the officials said.
A batch of 429 pilgrims left for the yatra from Jammu. The pilgrims included 32 women and 102 sadhus.
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With improvement in weather, the officials said fresh batches of pilgrims were allowed to move towards the cave shrine from the base camps of Baltal in Ganderbal district and Nunwan-Pahalgam in Anantnag district.
Baltal route
While 944 pilgrims preferred the shorter 12-km Baltal route, 896 pilgrims left Nunwan in the morning to track the traditional 42-km Pahalgam route to the cave, the officials said.
They said the yatra was going on smoothly from both the routes and so far 525 pilgrims had ‘darshan’ of the naturally formed ice-shivlingam at the cave. PTI