Jammu and Kashmir is heading towards a showdown between Hindu activists and the official agencies as Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) has reaffirmed that no unregistered pilgrim will be allowed to embark on the mountain journey to the cave shrine prior or during the annual pilgrimage scheduled to begin on June 25. On the other hand, the activists have vowed to violate the diktat ‘at any cost”.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the frontrunner of the campaign that the yatra should be started on Jyesht Poornima falling on June 4, said on Wednesday, “We accept the challenge.”
A day after the state government made it clear that it will go by the schedule announced by the SASB and that not a single unregistered pilgrim would be allowed to undertake the pilgrimage before June 25, the state president of the VHP Ramakant Dubey said in Jammu that “We caution the government not to come in the way of pilgrimage and create unnecessary roadblocks.” He told reporters, “The first batch of pilgrims would come Jammu on June 4 to perform darshan inside the holy cave-shrine”. He said it is the duty of the state government and the SASB to facilitate the yatra and make necessary arrangements. Warning the government against “meddling in the religious affairs”, he said “they should not create roadblocks for the smooth conduct of the pilgrimage”.
Bajrang Dal leaders endorsed him and said that more than 20,000 pilgrims from different north Indian cities would assemble in Jammu to begin the yatra in the first week of June. “We are determined to go ahead and if the state government wants to prevent our assembly they are most welcome to try their hand,” Mr Dubey added, “No one can stop pilgrims from visiting holy cave.”