The ongoing annual Amarnath Yatra was suspended on Thursday from Jammu due to bad weather conditions. The authorities on Thursday said no fresh batch would be allowed to proceed from Jammu to the holy cave shrine, while the previous batch, which has reached Baltal base camp, will continue its journey.
However, due to maintenance on the Pahalgam route, the yatra is suspended on the axis for today, they said.
The incessant rains in Kashmir had rendered the roads unsafe, after which the holy journey was suspended on both the Sonamarg-Baltal axis and Pahalgam routes on Wednesday.
“The yatra resumed this morning from the Baltal route,” an official said, adding, “Given the maintenance works required to be carried out on the Pahalgam axis of the Amarnath Yatra route following the recent rains, the yatra shall continue only through the Baltal axis.”
Officials said no permission has been given to fresh convoys of yatris to move towards the Baltal and Nunwan base camps from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu on Thursday.
Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Ramesh Kumar said, “Due to incessant rains, it was decided that no convoy movement shall be allowed towards the base camps at Baltal and Nunwan from Bhagwati Nagar, Jammu, on July 31.”
The journey will resume once the authorities deem the conditions to be fit for the movement of the yatra on Friday. This marks the second instance when the yatra has been suspended. Earlier on July 17, the yatra was suspended due to heavy rains at both base camps in the Kashmir Valley.
So far, over 3.93 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the ice lingam of Lord Shiva at the 3,880-meter-high cave shrine since the 38-day pilgrimage commenced on July 3 from the Valley.
A total of 1,44,124 pilgrims have departed from the Jammu base camp for the Valley since July 2, when Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the first batch.
Last year, over 5.10 lakh pilgrims paid obeisance at the cave shrine.
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