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5 pilgrims die enroute Amarnath; toll 42
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 7/8/2012 1:17:51 AM
Yatris face inconvenience due to route diversion
SRINAGAR, Jul 7: Five Amarnath pilgrims, including two from Delhi, died of cardiac arrest en route to Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir, taking the toll in the ongoing yatra to 42.
The deceased have been identified as Parveen Kumar (32) and Balbir Singh (70), both residents of Delhi. The two died at Brarimarg and Baltal this morning, while two other pilgrims from Gujarat - Kila Bahan (52) and Jagdesh Purshotam Dass (77) - died at Baltal last night, government officials said.
Another pilgrim, Anand Botinger (43) of Uttar Pradesh, died at Pissu top near the holy cave while returning to the base camp after offering prayers at the shrine, they said. Over 2.70 lakh pilgrims has paid obeisance at the 3,880 metre high cave shrine housing naturally formed ice Shivlingam during the annual yatra which commenced on June 25 from the twin tracks of Baltal and Pahalgam. As many as 2, 57,747 pilgrims have visited the cave shrine till last night, the officials said.
Meanwhile, the death of a famous mystic of south Kashmir’s Aishmuqam area today forced the authorities to close the KP road for the vehicles carrying pilgrims to Pahalgam and divert the same through Langanbal-Pahalgam road. Due to the closure of the road the pilgrims as well as tourists had to face inconvenience as the road they were diverted through is in a dilapidated condition.
Many tourists as well as pilgrims were seen disembarking from their vehicles and confirming about the situation. The pilgrims’ and tourists who had come for the first time and were not aware about the other roads leading to Pahalgam waited till late evening for the reopening of the main road for proceeding towards their destinations.
The diversion of the traffic also led to long traffic jam on the roads again causing inconvenience to pilgrims and tourists. Official sources said that all the pilgrims who were supposed to arrive at the base camp Pahalgam reached safely. As per the reports 2.75 lakh Yatris had a darshan of Shri Amarnath Ji cave so far with round about 20 thousand performing darshan today.