Faith has conquered fear in the aftermath of the terror attack on an Amarnath yatra bus in Anantnag on July 10 evening that left seven pilgrims dead and 19 others injured as the number of yatris leaving the Jammu base camp for south Kashmir has witnessed an upward trend since then.
According to police officials, a total of 3,398 pilgrims left the Jammu base camp for the Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva located in south Kashmir in the 16th batch amid tight security.
The batch comprising 2,535 males, 758 females, 100 sadhus and sadhvis, and five transgenders, left in a convoy of 191 vehicles for the Baltal and Pahalgam base camps in south Kashmir early today escorted by J&K Police and paramilitary personnel.
With today’s batch, a total of 50,028 pilgrims have left for Kashmir from Jammu in 16 batches. This number has so far surpassed the last year’s yatra statistics at the Jammu base camp. In 2016, a total of 44,892 pilgrims had gone to Kashmir from Jammu for performing the pilgrimage during its duration of 48 days.
The 40-day annual yatra began on June 28 from Jammu and will conclude on August 7, coinciding, as per traditions, with Raksha Bandhan.
Till today, as many as 1,95,491 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the holy cave shrine.
On July 10, when the terrorists attacked the bus, a total of 2,430 pilgrims had left the Jammu base camp early that morning but the count of pilgrims who moved to Kashmir from Jammu went up to 3,289 on July 11 morning.
“The number of pilgrims leaving Jammu further went up to 3,791 on July 12 while it was 3,500 on July 13. As many as 3,398 pilgrims left for Kashmir from Jammu on July 14,” base camp officials said here.
Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Jammu, Arun Manhas, who is the nodal officer of the Amarnath yatra in Jammu, said the number of pilgrims reaching Jammu for on-the-spot registration had witnessed a constant increase.
“Earlier, an average of 1,000 to 1,500 pilgrims used to get on-the-spot registration but this number has been a spurt in it. More than 2,000 pilgrims got their registration done today,” the ADC said.
Faith Conquers Fear: Amarnath Yatris number from Jammu goes up
