Early Sunday morning, a new group of 3,113 pilgrims, including 707 women, departed from the base camp in Jammu to participate in the annual Amarnath pilgrimage in the south Kashmir Himalayas, officials reported.
The 52-day yatra, which began on June 29, follows two routes: Pahalgam in Anantnag and Baltal in Ganderbal districts. To date, nearly 390,000 pilgrims have visited the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine, which houses the naturally formed ice-shivlingam.
This 24th batch of pilgrims, including 87 Sadhus and 15 Sadhvis, left Jammu’s Bhagwati Nagar base camp at approximately 2:55 a.m. in a convoy of 123 vehicles, amid heightened security measures.
Of the new batch, 1,960 pilgrims will take the 48-kilometre traditional Pahalgam route, while 1,153 pilgrims have chosen the shorter but steeper 14-kilometre Baltal route, officials said.
The yatra is set to conclude on ‘Shravan Purnima,’ coinciding with Raksha Bandhan on August 19. Last year, over 450,000 pilgrims offered their prayers at the shrine.
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