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Security tightened for Amarnath pilgrims

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR AUG. 7. Even as 2,100 more pilgrims had darshan of the Shiv Lingam at the Amarnath cave shrine today, there has been a drop in the number of pilgrims starting their journey from Jammu, though on a small scale. Security has been beefed up along the route from Jammu to the cave.

Official sources said against the 2,082 pilgrims who had proceeded to Pahalgam from Jammu on Tuesday, 1,669 took their journey on Wednesday. These included 1,230 men, 250 women, 13 children and 176 sadhus. This group has been the smallest one so far since the yatra started on July 20, sources said. Today, the pilgrims were escorted from Jammu in 76 vehicles with more paramilitary forces in view of the attack on the camp in Nunwan on Tuesday. The deployment of forces has also been increased on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the only route for the pilgrims to enter Kashmir.

The SSP, Anantnag, Ghulam Hassan Bhat, who is camping in Pahalgam told The Hindu that 1,700 pilgrims left for Jammu today with the number who had darshan going up to 76,699. So far, 92,216 pilgrims have reached Pahalgam, he said. The authorities are now allowing the unregistered pilgrims also.

Meanwhile, security arrangements for the rest of the yatra, which will end on August 22, were reviewed at a high-level meeting in Pahalgam and intensified searches were launched in nearby woods to nab the militants in the area. The entire security system is being reviewed to ensure an incident-free yatra, police sources said. The top brass of the security is, however, trying to look into the circumstances leading to the breach of the three-tier security cordon. A report has been sought by Centre in this regard, sources said.

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