STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Two pilgrims and a woman tourist from Delhi died of cardiac arrest enroute the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir, taking the death toll in the ongoing pilgrimage to five, even as nearly 80,000 pilgrims paid obeisance at the cave shrine since July 2.
The two pilgrims – Sudharshan Biswas (62) of West Bengal and Vipin Palikar (57) of Mumbai – died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday, officials said.
A 50-year-old woman tourist, Kavita Malhotra of Delhi, died at Baltal base camp on Wednesday. She had come from Sonamarg tourist resort to the base camp to know about the process and arrangements of the yatra but was not planning to undertake it this time.
Two pilgrims from Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, died on July 2 and 5.
The officials said the yatra was going on smoothly along both the routes – traditional 42-km Pahalgam route in Anantnag district and 12-km route in Ganderbal district.
As many as 7,913 pilgrims visited the cave shrine till 2.00 PM on Thursday, the officials said, adding 71,103 yatris have performed darshan of holy ‘ice lingum’ till Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) has commissioned inquiries about issuing of fake registration permits by “fraudulent persons” to unregistered pilgrims desirous of undertaking the journey.
CEO of the Board P K Tripathi said 2,47,634 yatris had obtained advance registration through 432 designated branches of Punjab National Bank, J&K Bank and Yes Bank, which are located in 32 states, till July 5.
He said this year facilities had been established at four places in Vaishnavi Dham, Saraswati Dham, Mahajan Sabha, Sangam Resort and Ram Mandir (for Sadhus only) while in Srinagar the facility has been provided at the Tourist Reception Centre, Nowgam.
“Thus, for the first eight days of the Yatra, July 2 to July 9, the Board has released about 14500 slots for both the routes. Meanwhile, as many as 1,767 pilgrims on Thursday left the base camp in Jammu for Amarnath yatra to pay obeisance at the cave shrine in South Kashmir. The latest batch, comprising 1,266 men, 346 women, 150 sages and other, left in a cavalcade of 57 vehicles from Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 5.15 AM, a police official said.
More than 71,000 people have paid obeisance at the cave shrine in Kashmir Himalayas till last night. With today’s batch, 11,772 pilgrims have left from the Jammu base camp for the pilgrimage, the official said
