Amarnath Yatra: 18th batch of pilgrims leaves from Jammu base camp to Kashmir

JAMMU: The 18 batch of pilgrims on Shri Amarnath Yatra comprising 4,388 devotees left for the holy cave shrine situated in the Himalayas in south Kashmir on Sunday morning from two base camps in Jammu.

“A batch of 1,573 left for Baltal in a fleet of 64 vehicles escorted by security squad at 3.30am, while a second batch of 2,815 pilgrims left in a convoy of 115 vehicles at 4am,” officials said.

The 38-day annual pilgrimage started from two routes after the first batch was flagged off from here by the lieutenant governor of the UT, Manoj Sinha, on July 2. The Shri Amarnath Yatra is scheduled to conclude on Aug 9 on the auspicious occasion of Shravan Purnima coinciding with Rakshbandhan.

This year, with an objective of bolstering security during the Shri Amarnathji Yatra, the UT govt declared all the routes of the yatra as "No Flying Zones", including Pahalgam axis and Baltal axis, from July 1 to Aug 10.