Amarnath Yatra resumes
SRINAGAR: The Amarnath Yatra resumed on Friday from the Pahalgam route after a gap of two days while it remained suspended for the third consecutive day from the Baltal route due to landslides.
The yatra was suspended on Wednesday on both routes in the wake of landslides and shooting stones at several places and intermittent rains in the Yatra area.
A spokesman of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) said here today that the yatra resumed from the Pahalgam route in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district this morning.
He, however, said the yatra remained suspended from the Baltal route in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district due to landslides near the base camp and in Danibagh area of Kangan on the Srinagar-leh highway.
The landslide at Danibagh also forced the closure of the Srinagar-leh road the only road-link connecting the valley with Ladakh region.
A police official said today that three pilgrims died and four others were injured when they came under a landslide between Brarimarg and Railpathri on Baltal route on Tuesday night while two pilgrims were killed by shooting stones over the past three days.
A pilgrim from West Bengal, Sanjay Santra, died near the cave shrine due to cardiac arrest, the official said.
Six other persons have died due to cardiac arrest since the pilgrimage to the 3880-metre high shrine began on June 28, taking the death toll in this year’s pilgrimage to 12. RAIPUR: Three Naxals were killed in an encounter with security forces in Dantewada district of the Chhattisgarh on Friday, a senior official said.
A jawan of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) was also injured in the exchange of fire in the insurgency-hit district, located around 450km from the state capital Raipur, he said.
The gunbattle took place in a forest under Katekalyan police station limits when a joint team of the DRG and the District Force was out on an anti-maoist operation, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Anti-naxal Operations) Sundarraj P said.
When the patrolling team was cordoning off the forest near Pedadabba village, Naxals triggered an IED blast and fired indiscriminately, leading to the gunbattle between the two sides, he said.