Over 67k devotees visit Amarnath cave shrine in 1st 5 days of pilgrimage

SRINAGAR: A total of 67,566 pilgrims have visited the Amarnath cave shrine since the beginning of the Yatra on July 1, an official statement said on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, 18,354 pilgrims left for the Amarnath cave shrine both from the Baltal base camp and Nunwan base camp performed the darshan.

"These include 12483 males, 5146 females, 457 children, 266 sadhus, and 2 sadhvis," an official statement said. "The total number of yatris who performed Darshan since the beginning is 67566. More yatris will visit the shrine in the coming days," it added.

According to the official spokesperson, pilgrims are being assisted during their entire journey by state agencies and civil departments by making all the essentials and facilities available to devotees.

"All the departments including Police, SDRF, Army, paramilitary, Health, PDD, PHE, ULB, Information, Labour, Fire and Emergency, Education, and Animal Husbandry have saturated the overall requirements and arrangements of SANJY by the deployment of their men and machinery," it mentioned.

Under the supervision of Camp directors, the entire facilities are extended to yatris including Langers, health facilities, assistance by service providers including poniwallaa, pithuwalas, dandiwalas, sanitation, and many other assistance, the statement said. The 62-day-long Shri Amarnath Yatra will culminate on August 31, 2023.