Srinagar: The annual Amarnath yatra was suspended from the Baltal route on Friday due to inclement weather and to facilitate repair work on the track, officials said.
The yatra has already been suspended from the Pahalgam route to carry out necessary repairs.
Heavy rains lashed the Baltal area on Thursday night, triggering a minor flash flood at one location. However, no loss of life or damage to property was reported, officials said.
Owing to the adverse weather and ongoing repair work, no pilgrim was allowed to proceed towards the holy cave shrine from the Baltal route, they said.
Repair work on the track is currently underway, officials added.
The annual pilgrimage began on July 3, and around 4.5 lakh devotees have so far paid obeisance at the cave shrine housing the naturally formed ice lingam.
The yatra is scheduled to conclude on August 28 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.
Batch of 1,605 devotees leaves for Amarnath cave shrine from Jammu
The smallest batch of 1,605 devotees left the Jammu base camp for the annual Amarnath Yatra amid multi-tier security arrangements on Friday, officials said.
More than 4.47 lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Lord Shiva in Anantnag district since the Yatra commenced on July 3. The annual pilgrimage will conclude on August 28.
On Friday, the 22nd batch of 1,605 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for Baltal in 54 vehicles, the officials said.
With this, a total of 1,34,011 pilgrims have left the Jammu base camp for the annual Yatra, officials said.
Friday’s batch was the smallest to leave Jammu so far. While 1,795 and 2,051 pilgrims left Jammu for the shrine on Thursday and Wednesday, respectively, Tuesday and Monday saw 3,029 and 3,800 pilgrims leave the Bhagwati Nagar base camp, respectively.
The Yatra was suspended for six days from July 19-24 due to the inclement weather forecast. It resumed on July 25.
