STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Four Amarnath pilgrims died due to cardiac arrest en route to the cave shrine in Kashmir Himalayas over the past three days, taking the death toll in this year’s pilgrimage to 15, officials said here on Sunday.
Rajinder Singh, a 35-year-old pilgrim from Punjab, died due to cardiac arrest at Baltal base camp in Ganderbal district, a police official said.
He said 58-year-old R C Bose from West Bengal also died due to heart attack at Baltal base camp.
Mohan Lal (65), hailing from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, died due to cardiac arrest at the cave shrine while 50-year-old Govind Prasad from Rajasthan died at Domel along the Baltal cave axis, the official said. With these deaths, the toll in this year’s pilgrimage, which started on July 2, has risen to 15.
They include a local driver who died in a road accident while ferrying the pilgrims to Jammu from Baltal base camp. Meanwhile, amid tight security, a fresh batch of 1,755 pilgrims on Sunday left from Jammu for the cave shrine of Amarnath.
“A fresh batch of 1755 pilgrims, including 1422 males and 333 females in 52 vehicles left the Jammu base camp towards Kashmir this morning to perform the pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine,” Deputy Commissioner of Jammu Simrandeep Singh said.
Despite unrest in the Valley over the past nine days, the yatra is going on smoothly from the twin routes and so far over 1.70 lakh pilgrims have visited the cave shrine and had ‘Darshan’ of the ice lingam.
