Over 2.13 lakh pilgrims registered, security deployment begun for Amarnath yatra

Nitesh Sangral
JAMMU, June 6: As many as 2.13 lakh pilgrims have registered themselves for the annual pilgrimage to the 13,500-feet-high cave shrine of Amarnath in the Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir. Over 2.13 lakh pilgrims for Amarnath yatra have been registered at various registration counters and through online process across the country till today, the 28th day of registration, officials said. The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) began the registration process on May 10 for the yatra which will commence on June 29 and culminate on August 13. "The registration counters have been set up at 121 designated branches of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, 24 of the YES Bank and four of the District Cooperative Banks," a SASB spokesman.The Shrine Board, at a meeting on February 18, had curtailed the period of the annual pilgrimage by 15 days. The yatra will commence simultaneously from Baltal and Chandanwari routes on June 29 and culminate on August 13. Meanwhile government has begun security forces deployment along the route to the cave shrine. Sources said that besides the Jammu and Kashmir Police, paramilitary forces and strong contingents of the army would also be deployed along both the routes of the Baltal-Sangam route and the one from Pahalgam. "This time, there would be deployment of about 10,000 security forces personnel from Jammu to the cave shrine in south Kashmir," a senior police official said. The major deployment of the security forces would be in Jammu city starting point because of repeated intercepts that militants were planning a big strike to grab headlines.