Jammu-Srinagar national highway partially restored
After the weather cleared, the 270-km-long Jammu-Srinagar national highway was partially restored on Friday.
Only one-way traffic has been restored along several stretches. Senior superintendent of police (SSP, traffic, national highway) Shabir Malik said, “The highway has been partially restored. However, we cleared Amarnath pilgrims from Chanderkote in Ramban to the holy cave shrine.The road is still not fully fit for plying traffic and shooting stones are being intermittently reported.”
Amarnath pilgrims, who were putting up at the Yatri Niwas at Chanderkote in Ramban due to the closure of the highway, were able to continue on their pilgrimage. On Friday morning, a batch of 835 Amarnath pilgrims, the smallest so far this year, left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp. The pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in a convoy of 35 vehicles amid heavy security at around 4.15 am. As many as 306 pilgrims heading for Baltal were the first to leave the Jammu camp in 16 vehicles, followed by the second convoy of 19 vehicles, carrying 529 pilgrims for Pahalgam.
The number of pilgrims visiting the cave shrine has drastically fallen over the last three days, mostly due to inclement weather. Till Thursday, 2.70 lakh pilgrims had offered their prayers at the cave shrine, housing the naturally formed iceshivlingam, officials said. With this, a total of 141,358 pilgrims have left from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for the Valley since June 29, the day the first batch of pilgrims was flagged off by lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha. The yatra is scheduled to end on August 11, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan.
Army rescues 26 trapped in Poonch flash flood
The army on Friday rescued 26 people who were trapped in a flash flood in a river in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, officials said.
Acting on information about 26 members of several families trapped in a flash flood in the Chandak Bela area, army troops along with police and State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) launched an operation to rescue them, they said. After a day-long operation, they were rescued safely, they said.
Ambulance stuck due to landslides; army comes to rescue
The Army came to the rescue of a 20-dayold baby with congenital heart disease after the ambulance carrying him to a Srinagar hospital got stuck at Ramban due to landslides, officials said.
Isaan Munir of Noorbagh was on ventilator support and being shifted to SKIMS from Delhi when his ambulance got stuck near Panthyal bridge on Thursday, they said.
As the ambulance was running short of Oxygen, a team of Army personnel from Digdool camp rushed to the spot and brought the child to the other side safely amid shooting stones, they said.
The child was taken to district hospital in Ramban and 24,000 litres of Oxygen was arranged for the onwards journey to Srinagar by the Army, they said. The Army escort ensured that the ambulance passed through the BanihalQazigund tunnel without hassle, officials said.