STATE TIMES NEWS
Jammu: 1,924 pilgrims on Tuesday left the Jammu Base Camp for Amarnath Yatra even as 50,000 people paid obeisance at the Cave Shrine in Kashmir Himalayas. The latest batch, comprising 1,408 men, 362 women and 154 Sadhus, left in a cavalcade of 53 vehicles from Bhagwati Nagar Base Camp at 5:15 AM, a police official said with today’s batch of 8,384 pilgrims left from the Jammu Base Camp for the pilgrimage. Meanwhile, over 50,000 pilgrims had visited the Cave Shrine and offered their prayers since the commencement of the Yatra. “As many as 50,725 pilgrims paid obeisance at the Holy Cave. They included over 10,000 pilgrims who visited the cave shrine till 3:00 PM on Tuesday,” officials said. A 34-year-old pilgrim on Tuesday died of cardiac arrest on his way to the Holy Cave Shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir, taking the death toll in the ongoing Yatra to two, officials said. Mohit Agarwal, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, suffered a heart attack at Panjtarni along the traditional 42-km Pahalgam-Cave Route in Anantnag District of south Kashmir and died while being shifted to hospital, they said. Agarwal was on way to the 3,880 metre high Holy Cave Shrine, housing the naturally formed Ice-Shivlingam. On the first day of the Yatra on 2nd July, a pilgrim from Delhi died of heart attack near Baltal along the shorter 12-km route in Ganderbal District.
