This year’s Amarnath yatra entered its final phase on Friday when Chhari Mubarak or the holy mace of Lord Shiva left Srinagar for the cave shrine up in Kashmir Himalayas. The 55-day pilgrimage will conclude on August 21, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan.
Meanwhile, the yatra was resumed early Friday after remaining suspended for three days due to hostile weather conditions. Earlier, the journey of fresh batches of the pilgrims from Jammu was stopped for a couple of days as precautionary measures in view of tensions set off by August 9 communal violence in eastern town of Kishtwar and subsequent unrest in Hindu-majority areas of the Jammu division.
The saffron-robed mace was taken from its Dashnami Akhara abode at Budshah Chowk here to Pahalgam resort by a group of sadhus and pilgrims led by its custodian Mahant Deependra Giri. Earlier, the Chhari was offered pooja here and at various temples en route to Pahalgam, which serves as the traditional base-camp for the annual pilgrimage. The mace will cover 46-km Pahalgam-cave route amid night halts at Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni before arriving at Amarnath on August 21. As compared to last year’s over 600,000 devotees paying obeisance at the 12,729-foot-high place of worship, only 3,52,386 pilgrims have visited it, so far, this year. The figure is unlikely to cross 400,000 mark as only between 500 and 1,200 pilgrims at an average are arriving in the Valley daily to worship at Amarnath.
The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board officials said the pilgrims who were stranded at different halting stations for the past three days have reached Amarnath to pray.