Walking footsteps towards serenity, 16th batch of pilgrims leave to offer prayers at Amarnath Yatra

New Delhi, July 17: Appealing a self towards the path of purity and attaining spiritual bliss, the 16th batch of Amarnath Yatra comprising of 4,584 pilgrims, including 1,152 women and 95 seers on Wednesday left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp to offer their prayers at the cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas.

 

“The pilgrims, including 28 children, left in a convoy of 192 vehicles under tight security arrangements in the early hours and will be reaching the twin base camps of Pahalgam in Anantnag and Baltal in Ganderbal districts later in the day”, the CRPF officials said.

 

Of the latest batch, the officials further said that 2,612 pilgrims, including 536 women, 12 children and 95 seers, were heading for Pahalgam to undertake the yatra from there, while the remaining 1,972 pilgrims, including 616 women and 16 children, had preferred the Baltal route.

 

“With this batch, a total of 80,181 pilgrims have left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here since the commencement of the yatra”, the officials said, adding that as many as 2,05,083 pilgrims had paid obeisance at the cave shrine till late Tuesday.

 

The yatra is scheduled to end on August 15, coinciding with the Raksha Bandhan festival. As many as 2,85,006 lakh pilgrims had paid obeisance at the shrine last year, while the number of pilgrims was 3,52,771 in 2015, 3,20,490 in 2016 and 2,60,003 in 2017.