The 42-day-long annual pilgrimage to the holy cave shrine was scheduled to commence on June 23.
Officials said with improvement in the weather, the pilgrims were later allowed to move on the traditional 46-km Pahalgam and shorter 12-km Baltal routes. They said the sun had come out in the afternoon and the yatra progressed smoothly after remaining suspended for a few hours
Concerned over the development, the security agencies reworked their strategy, especially keeping in mind the Amarnath Yatra beginning June 30.
The national capital was in the grip of a cold wave, with the sun largely obscured by clouds and pollutants lingering in the atmosphere, leading to reduced visibility. At least 129 flights were cancelled at the Delhi airport on Saturday due to dense fog, according to an official.
According to the officials, fresh batches of pilgrims were not allowed to leave Jammu to embark on their yatra due to closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.
Authorities on Friday suspended Amarnath yatra from Jammu in view of the continued strike in Kashmir Valley over transfer of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board. The devotees were not allowed to proceed from Bhagwati Nagar base camp to the Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva in the Kashmir Himalayas.
Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday said Amarnath Yatra would resume on Tuesday from Jammu base camp after being suspended for the last three days due to the curfew.
A meeting of senior police and civil officers under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Pawan Kotwal was held on Friday to review the yatra arrangements.
The heavy rush of unregistered pilgrims pouring in thousands into the Valley daily is posing a serious challenge to the authorities who are facing overcrowding at the base camps, traffic jams and throwing haywire the logistics put in place for the annual Amarnath yatra.
The annual Amarnath yatra began on Tuesday amid tight security as the first batch of 2,096 devotees left Jammu base camp for pilgrimage to the 13,500 meter-high cave shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas.
Expressing grief over the Uttarakhand tragedy, the moderate Hurriyat Conference on Friday demanded restricting Amarnath Yatra to an earlier schedule to safeguard the fragile environment of Himalayas.
Jammu and Kashmir does not have an elected dispensation since the Peoples Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government fell apart in June 2018.
The C-17 Globemaster can airlift around 230 passengers in one go and takes less time to fly between different places.
He said the search operation turned into an encounter after the hiding terrorists fired at the security forces.
The Amarnath yatra resumed on Friday, after it remained suspended for the last three days due to inclement weather, with a batch of 1,860 pilgrims leaving from Jammu for their onward journey to the cave shrine in south Kashmir.
'The Pahalgam terror attacks and the conflict that followed were a big blow to local tourism.' 'And just when things were starting to go back to normal, the floods, caused by heavy rain, spoiled all chances of a bounce-back this season.'
The annual Amarnath Yatra is on amid tight security, with pilgrims from both Baltal and Pahalgam base camps starting their journey for the 3880-metre-high cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas.
Voicing concern over nearly 100 deaths in the course of the Amarnath Yatra, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday demanded extension of the pilgrimage period and proper medical facilities and accommodation for the pilgrims.
After being delayed by landslides for two days, pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath yatra resumed their journey on Saturday.
Defying apprehensions of the horrific April 22 terror Pahalgam attack casting a shadow on the Amarnath Yatra this year, hundreds of pilgrims from various parts of the country lined up at the registration centre in Jammu on the first day.
The Corps commander said Pakistan and its army were desperate to disrupt peace in Kashmir Valley.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said there was no increased threat perception to this year's Amarnath yatra compared to previous years and fears of attack as reported in the media were "gross exaggeration".
Drones are being used for aerial security of the Amarnath base camp at Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu city for the first time while at least 20,000 security personnel have been deployed along the two routes.
Over 1.43 lakh intending pilgrims have registered themselves for this year's Amarnath Yatra beginning from July 2.
Tension gripped the north Kashmir Baltel base camp of the annual Amarnath yatra following clashes between security forces and locals on Thursday evening.
The issue of pilgrimages to the Amarnath and Vaishnodevi shrines, both located in Jammu and Kashmir, was discussed at a high-level meeting attended by Union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Jitendra Singh and senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Jammu and Kashmir administration. The Amarnath Yatra is likely to commence on July 21.
The Amarnath yatra was suspended on Saturday due to closure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in the wake of a landslide triggered by heavy rains in Udhampur district of the state.
The annual Amarnath yatra has been re-scheduled and will now commence from June 15. The postponement has been forced by the presence of heavy snow on the yatra route to the Himalayan Cave Shrine located at a height of 13000 feet from both southern Chandanwari and northern Baltal routes.
The decision to keep the pilgrimage symbolic was taken after discussions with members of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, officials said.
A month after a deadly terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam, locals in the south Kashmir resort town are facing mounting livelihood losses. Despite a massive crackdown by security forces, the perpetrators of the attack have evaded capture. Tourists have stopped visiting Pahalgam, leaving businesses struggling to survive. Local residents say the situation is becoming desperate and call for government intervention to help revive the tourism industry.
The army has received inputs that terrorists might try to disrupt the Amarnath Yatra scheduled to commence from June 28, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, Lt General K T Parnaik said Monday.
The encounter broke out when a joint search party of the army and police launched a search operation, based on a specific intelligence, in remote Bihali area of Basantgarh in the district this morning. Reinforcements have been rushed in and a massive search operation is going on despite bad weather.
Army troops opened fire after noticing suspicious movement in a forward area near the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district, while security forces conducted searches at more than a dozen places in Poonch, Samba, and Kathua districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, officials said.
Mahant Deependra Giri, the custodian of the holy mace, accompanied by over 100 'sadhus' reached the shrine with the Charri Mubarak this morning, Shri Amarnath Shrine Board officials said.
The Yatra has been suspended as there has been snowfall at several places.
The Amarnath yatra was suspended today due to inclement weather conditions in the south Kashmir Himalayas, official sources said in Jammu
Official sources said the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine in south Kashmir will now begin on July 20 instead of July 29 as announced earlier and will end on August 31.
