TWO MORE TELUGUS DIE AT AMARNATH

Two more Amarnath pilgrims, one each from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, died of natural causes on Sunday, raising the toll to 14 during this year’s yatra to the 3,888-foot-high revered cave-shrine in Kashmir Himalayas.

The police and hospital sources said that a 54-year-old woman pilgrim from Hyderabad identified as Lakshmi Bhai died due to cardiac arrest at Baltal, the basecamp at a distance of 96 kms from summer capital Srinagar overnight.

The local police and central paramilitary forces on Sunday enforced a security lockdown in major parts of Jammu and Kashmir’s summer capital Srinagar to hold back rallies and protests on the second death anniversary of Hizb-ulMujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani.

Tral, the hometown of Wani in southern Pulwama district, remained under curfew on the second day running whereas tensions have peaked in neighbouring Kulgam district after the killing of three youths including a girl in the Army firing on Saturday.

Elsewhere in the Valley, a shutdown called by ‘Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL)’, an alliance of key separatist leaders, to commemorate Wani's “martyrdom” brought life to a standstill. At places including on a university campus in Srinagar protests were held at which the participants chanted pro-freedom slogans.

The authorities said that the overall situation remained “peaceful and under control” across the Valley and in Bhaderwah town of Chenab valley of Jammu whereas a shutdown on Burhan anniversary was observed.

However, the travel by Amarnath pilgrims from Jammu has been suspended for Sunday “as a precautionary measure”.

A SHUTDOWN called by ‘Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL)’, an alliance of key separatist leaders, to commemorate Wani's “martyrdom” brought life to a standstill