On day two of the annual Amarnath Yatra, as many as 11,209 devotees paid obeisance at the 12,729 ft. high cave-temple nestled in Kashmir Himalayas on Friday. Meanwhile, a third batch of 3,217 pilgrims left Jammu for Pahalgam and Baltal earlier during the day to embark on the otherwise ardous journey through rugged hills.
The officials said that over eleven thousand devotees who relocated to Amarnath for darshan took both traditional route Pahalgam and shorter Baltal route via Srinagar and did not face any problems. They included 538 women and 99 children.
J&K deputy chief minister Mr Tara Chand, Mr R.S. Chib and Mr Raman Bhalla and Mr Mubarak Gul, visited the base camps at Baltal and Nunwan to monitor the arrangements for yatris.
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8,500 force deployed
Age Correspondent
New Delhi
July 2: The Centre has provided around 8,500 paramilitary force personnel for security during the Amarnath Yatra. This includes nearly 5000 CRPF personnel , including two mahila battalions. Home ministry said that intelligence agencies are keeping a close watch on information being made available to them.