Amarnath Yatra resumes, one dies of cardiac arrest

JAMMU: After a brief disruption on Friday due to bad weather, a fresh batch of 4,477 Amarnath pilgrims left Yatri Niwas base camp in Jammu for the cave shrine on Saturday morning.

The pilgrims left in a convoy of 136 vehicles, comprising 95 buses and 41 cars, from the base camp at Bhagwati Nagar at 4.30 am amid tight security, an official said. He said 4,477 pilgrims included 3,298 men, 986 women, 175 male sadhus, 11 female sadhvis and seven transgenders.

The convoy was escorted by armed CRPF personnel.

Rains on Thursday and Friday triggered landslides on the 294-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway, causing suspension of the pilgrimage from the Yatri Niwas base camp.

The Intelligence reports had claimed that militants were planning to target 100 policemen and as many pilgrims.

“The Intelligence input received from SSP Anantnag revealed that terrorists had been directed to eliminate 100 to 150 pilgrims and 100 police officers and officials,” said a letter by inspector general (Kashmir zone) Muneer Khan to the army, CRPF, and range DIGs in the state last week.

Meanwhile, a 72-year-old pilgrim from West Bengal died of cardiac arrest en route Amarnath on Saturday, taking the toll in the ongoing yatra to three.

AK Mukherji, a resident of Howrah, died due to cardiac arrest at Poshpathri this morning, a police official said.

With this, the toll in this year’s yatra has risen to three.

A pilgrim from Jammu was killed by a shooting stone at Brarimarg on June 29, while an assistant sub-inspector of the ITBP suffered cardiac arrest at the same place a day before.