Jammu, July 30: The flow of pilgrims to the holy Amarnath shrine have decreased by 70 per cent during the week after the Katra explosions and Tanda army camp attack, giving a jolt to revival of tourism in Jammu and Kashmir.
"There has been a fall of 70 per cent of Amarnath Yatra during last one week after the terror attacks on pilgrims at Banganga (Katra) and tanda army camp in which 15 persons, including six pilgrims and nine armymen, were killed on July 21 and 22," state tourism department officials said yesterday.
They said on July 20, a batch of 3372 pilgrims had left for the holy cave shrine, followed by 3423 on July 21 (day of attack on Vaishnodevi pilgrims) and 3294 on July 22 (day of attack on Tanda army camp).

From then, yatra figures nosedived to 2810 on July 23, followed by 2802 on July 24, 2516 on July 25, 2343 on July 26 and 1735 on July 27, they said, adding that number of pilgrims further dipped to 1732 on July 28 and lowest ever to 1173 on July 29 against the average number fixed at 3200 per day.
"The two terror attacks have created fear of psychosis among the people across the country particularly tourists and pilgrims, who are keeping away now”, they said.



"Not only this the rush of pilgrims to Kashmir valley has reduced by 50 per cent," they said, adding that devotees and tourists fear more terrorist attacks in days to come.



"This is the state, even after security has been beefed up...The government is also taking some confidence building measures in this direction”, the officials added.


Bureau Report