Two pilgrims and a woman tourist from Delhi died of cardiac arrest enroute the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir, taking the death toll in the ongoing pilgrimage to five, even as nearly 80,000 pilgrims paid obeisance at the cave shrine since July 2.
The two pilgrims -- Sudharshan Biswas, 62, of West Bengal and Vipin Palikar, 57, of Mumbai -- died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday, officials said.
A 50-year-old woman tourist, Kavita Malhotra of Delhi, died at Baltal base camp on Wednesday. She had come from Sonamarg tourist resort to the base camp to know about the process and arrangements of the yatra but was not planning to undertake it this time.
Two pilgrims from Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, died on July 2 and 5.
The officials said the yatra was going on smoothlyalong both the routes -- traditional 42-km Pahalgam route in Anantnag district and 12-km route in Ganderbal district.
As many as 7,913 pilgrims visited the cave shrine till 2.00 pm on Thursday, the officials said, adding 71,103 yatris have performed darshan of holy 'ice lingum' till Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board has commissioned inquiries about issuing of fake registration permits by "fraudulent persons" to unregistered pilgrims desirous of undertaking the journey.
"The yatris are advised to be extremely careful and not to secure yatra permits from any unauthorised person as certain reports have been received that fraudulent persons were unlawfully issuing fake registration permits, against whom inquiries have already been commissioned," CEO of the Board P K Tripathi said at a meeting chaired by Governor N N Vohra on Wednesday.
Tripathi said 2,47,634 yatris had obtained advance registration through 432 designated branches of Punjab National Bank, J&K Bank and Yes Bank, which are located in 32 states, till July 5.
"The advance registration for the current yatra had marked a significant improvement because of the sustained awareness campaign carried out by the board throughout the past year," he said, adding the largest number of pilgrims who had secured advance registration were from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
Image: Amarnath pilgrims en route the holy shrine. Photograph: Umar Ganie
