Over 4,800 pilgrims leave Jammu for Amarnath cave shrine

The pilgrims left Jammu's Bhagwati Nagar base camp in a convoy of 187 vehicles around 3 am amid tight security, officials said.

Jammu: A fresh batch of 4,889 Amarnath pilgrims left Jammu early on Sunday for the twin base camps of Pahalgam and Baltal in Kashmir, officials said.

The pilgrims left Jammu's Bhagwati Nagar base camp in a convoy of 187 vehicles around 3 am amid tight security, they said.

While 2,993 pilgrims, including 500 women and 11 children, will take the 48-km traditional Pahalgam route for their yatra, 1,896 pilgrims have preferred the shorter but steep 14-km Baltal route.

With this batch, the number of people who started the Amarnath Yatra from Jammu is 91,202. The rest of the pilgrims have directly reached the base camps in the Valley.

The 52-day yatra commenced from the twin routes of Pahalgam in Anantnag and Baltal in Ganderbal districts on June 29. So far, over 2.97 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas.

The yatra will culminate on 'Shravan Purnima' coinciding with the festival of Raksha Bandhan on August 19. Last year, over 4.5 lakh pilgrims offered prayers at the shrine.