The annual Amarnath Yatra which began on Thursday was temporarily halted due to bad weather. The route, which leads to the holy cave from Baltal and Pahalgam witnessed heavy rainfall.
Hundreds of pilgrims had reached Baltal base camp to start the 16-kilometer long trek to the shrine on Wednesday evening. However, they were stopped after heavy rainfall and prediction of inclement weather for the next 72 hours.
This year the Yatra will be conducted under the largest security cover as vehicles tagged with electromagnetic chips, bike and bullet-proof SUV police convoys and scores of bullet-proof bunkers have been deployed as a part the extensive security cover.
Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had decided to directly monitor the security arrangements along the route. Sources in the MHA said, that while the government in the state has chalked out a foolproof strategy to ensure incident free and peaceful pilgrimage, the MHA has decided not to leave the entire responsibility of security on the Jammu and Kashmir Government.
ALSO READ: ‘The Militarised Yatra’: A tool to claim land and resources, notes an environmental fact-finder
A posse of over 40,000 armed CRPF and state police personnel have virtually dotted the yatra routes from Jammu– via Pahalgam and Baltal– with their overwhelming presence in armoured vehicles.
Forces have deployed a huge assortment of CCTV cameras and drones, assisted by mounted Army columns, to ensure that the yatra route is secured.
“Each vehicle that has pilgrims and is part of the yatra is being tagged using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and they will be monitored at a control room made operational here.
“Security forces have been given specific responsibility to sanitise routes and secure a select number of pilgrim vehicles by sandwiching them between bullet proof troop carriers,” a senior security official told PTI.
ALSO READ: Meet the Majid Squad, a group that voluntarily cleans filth on Amarnath Yatra routes
With reports that there might be an attack on the Yatra, Hizbul Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naikoo on Tuesday said that Amarnath Yatris were ‘guests and that the reports suggesting that militants were planning to attack them were baseless’.
“Amarnath Yatra is not our target. They come here to perform their religious rituals. They (yatris) are our guests,” said Riyaz Naikoo, Field Operational Commander, in an audio clip released on social media.
