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Amarnath Yatra. Shutterstock
New Delhi: Amarnath Yatra, the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine housing the naturally formed ice Shivling, has been suspended temporarily due to bad weather, days after it commenced following a two-year hiatus due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials on Tuesday informed that the pilgrims from the Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam will not be allowed to move towards the shrine on hill top.
They further informed that nearly 3,000 pilgrims were stopped on Tuesday morning at the Nunwan base camp on the Pahalgam axis. Another batch of around 4,000 pilgrims who left from Jammu for the Pahalgam route were stopped at Yatri Niwas in Chanderkote in the Ramban district.
Pahalgam is located at about 90 km from Srinagar, the Jammu and Kashmir capital.
However, around 2,000 pilgrims who left from Jammu for the Baltal route were allowed to proceed to the cave shrine.
The Amarnath Yatra had commenced on 30 June from the the two base camps – Nunwan in Pahalgam of south Kashmir’s Anantnag and Baltal camp in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
The first batch of pilgrims reached the Pahalgam base camp last Thursday (30 June).
The annual 43-day pilgrimage started on Thursday (30 June) from the two base camps. Officials said that till today, over 72,000 pilgrims had offered their prayers at the cave shrine.
The Amarnath Yatra is scheduled to end on 11 August on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
For the unversed, the shrine is situated 3,888 metres above the sea level in Himalayas in Kashmir. It houses an ice stalagmite structure called the Lingam’ that wanes and waxes with the phases of the moon. Devotees believe the Lingam’ symbolises mythical powers of Lord Shiva.
Over 3.42 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the shrine from 1 July to 1 August, 2019, before the government cancelled the pilgrimage midway ahead of the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
With inputs from agencies
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