70,000 pilgrims offer prayers at Amarnath shine

Around 70,000 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the holy cave shrine of Amarnath, even as inclement weather prompted authorities to suspend the yatra from the shorter Baltal route on the third day, an official said.

Srinagar: Around 70,000 pilgrims have paid
obeisance at the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir
Himalayas, even as inclement weather prompted authorities to
suspend the yatra from the shorter Baltal route on the third
day on Friday, an official said.
"A total of 67,258 pilgrims offered prayers and had
`darshan` of the naturally formed ice-shivlingam at the 3,880
metre high holy cave shrine of Amarnath since the commencement
of the yatra on June 29," he said.

The number of pilgrims could have crossed one lakh mark
but the inclement weather forced the authorities to suspend
the yatra temporarily from the 13-km Baltal route, the track
preferred by most of the devotees to the traditional 46-km
Pahalgam route.

They said light snowfall at the cave and incessant rains
lashed the Baltal track during the night, rendering it
slippery at many places.
However, the pilgrimage was going on smoothly on the
Pahalgam route as more than 5,000 pilgrims set on the two
day-trek.

"The yatra from Baltal route has been stopped temporarily
due to inclement weather. A decision on allowing the pilgrims
to proceed further will be taken only after the track is
declared safe," an official at the yatra control room said.

Earlier in the day, the fourth batch of 2,303 pilgrims
left the Jammu base camp for Amarnath yatra.

Meanwhile, two more pilgrims died of cardiac arrest today,
taking the toll to five in the ongoing yatra, officials said.

PTI

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