984 pilgrims leave Jammu for Amarnath

Jammu, Aug 2 (PTI) A batch of 984 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar camp here on Wednesday for the twin base camps in Kashmir to undertake the onward journey to the 3,880-metre-high Amarnath cave shrine.

Over 4 lakh devotees have so far paid obeisance at the shrine since the beginning of the 62-day-long annual pilgrimage on July 1. The yatra will conclude on August 31.

Of the 984 pilgrims in this smallest batch to leave the Bhagwati Nagar camp, 498 are performing the yatra through the traditional 48-km Pahalgam track in the Anantnag district while 486 are heading for the 14-km Baltal route in Ganderbal district, officials said.

With this, over 1.41 lakh pilgrims have left the Jammu base camp for the valley. The yatra is scheduled to conclude on August 31.