Srinagar: After nearly three years, the Amarnath Yatra will begin today to visit Baba Barfani in the hills of South Kashmir. This time the journey will last for 43 days. Officials said that the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board has made all the preparations for the darshan of the naturally formed snow Shivling in the holy cave.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday flagged off the first batch of pilgrims from the Jammu base camp. Officials said the first batch, comprising 4,890 pilgrims, left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 4 a.m. on Wednesday in 176 vehicles and left for the Kashmir Valley as a convoy.
A senior official said that the Jammu and Kashmir administration is coordinating with the Shrine Board to provide adequate security on both the routes of Pahalgam and Baltal. He told that for the devotees who cannot undertake the difficult Amarnath Yatra, the board has arranged for an online ‘darshan’. “The pilgrims who cannot come for the Amarnath Yatra can avail the facility of ‘darshan’, ‘puja’, ‘havan’ and ‘prasad’ online,” the official said.
He said that since the Yatra has been resumed after a gap of three years, the number of pilgrims this year is expected to be higher than normal. It is noteworthy that in the year 2019, the Yatra was postponed midway in view of the cancellation of Article 370 giving special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while the Yatra was organized in the year 2020 and 2021 due to the Kovid-19 epidemic. had not been.
Recently, a senior army officer had said that this time the danger of (a terrorist attack) on Amarnath Yatra is high. In view of this, unprecedented security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the Yatra. Officials said that three to four times more security personnel have been deployed than before to strengthen the security of the pilgrims.
He said security has been beefed up on the Baltal and Pahalgam routes and new security posts have been set up so that no destructive elements can disrupt the yatra. To ensure that only verified pilgrims join the Yatra, SASB has asked Amarnath Yatra aspirants to carry Aadhaar or other biometric attested documents. Drones and RFID chips are also part of the three-tier security for the safety of pilgrims.
