4 Amarnath yatris die of cardiac arrest

Srinagar: Four more pilgrims died due to cardiac arrest enroute to the 3,880 metre-high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, taking the death toll in the ongoing yatra to 22, officials said on Saturday. 47-year-old Satpal Gogyal, a Delhi resident, suffered cardiac arrest at Panjtarni along the traditional 45-km Pahalgam-cave route in Anantnag district last evening, the officials said. They said 29-year-old Amandeep, a resident of Punjab, died near the holy cave due to cardiac arrest. 60-year-old Ram Autar from Manipur died due to cardiac arrest at Panjtarni camp while Banu Dass of Maharashtra died at Baltal due to same reason, the officials said.

With the latest deaths along the twin routes, the toll in the ongoing yatra, which started on July 2, has risen to 22. The dead also included a CRPF jawan. So far, over 2.40 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the cave shrine which houses the naturally formed ice-shivlingam. Meanwhile, fresh batches of pilgrims were allowed to proceed to the holy cave shrine from both Baltal and Pahalgam routes this morning after suspension from the shorter route of Baltal due to the cloudburst that took place on Thursday night.

Fresh batch leaves: A batch of 1,720 pilgrims on Saturday left for the cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas amidst tight security. The batch comprising 1,171 men, 441 women, 14 children and 94 others left in a cavalcade of 41 vehicles from Bhagwati Nagar base camp here at 4:55 AM, a police official said. The convoy has already reached Kud on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway. With Saturday’s batch, as many as 34,409 pilgrims have so far left from the Jammu base camp for the Amarnath shrine. Over 230,000 pilgrims have visited the shrine till Friday evening.