Over 1.43 lakh intending pilgrims have registered themselves for this year's Amarnath Yatra beginning from July 2.
Additional police force had been rushed to the Sabarimala hill shrine in Kerala in view of the heavy rush of pilgrims, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said.
They will be among 25,000 pilgrims from the world over visiting Pakistan to commemorate the 539th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in Talwandi, now called Nankana Sahib.
Reliance on technical intelligence has not been fruitful as terrorists use online activity to mislead authorities. Officials feel that there is an urgent need for heightened surveillance to counter foreign terrorists, especially in the Jammu region.
The condition of three of the injured is stated to be serious.
There was no "Miracle on the Seine" at the Paris Olympics on Saturday as the United States men's basketball team did as expected by grinding out a 98-87 win over France to claim a fifth consecutive gold medal.
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.
It was another black January 14 for Sabarimala pilgrims with Friday night's stampede tragedy being the third in the history of the hill shrine. The first tragedy shook the shrine on January 14, 1952, when it was gutted in a fire caused by an explosion of fireworks, leaving 66 Ayyappa pilgrims dead. The present shrine was rebuilt in place of the older one. In 1998, 52 pilgrims died following a stampede at Pampa, which also occurred on January 14 after 'Makara Jyothi' darshan.
Dubey visited the party headquarters at Trikuta Nagar in Jammu this evening and posed with Sharma and other senior leaders of the party, which the BJP termed as a move to show the "unity and the strength of the organisation".
Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the shrine, said revenue collection on the opening day registered a growth of Rs 1.28 crore compared to last year.
About 124 pilgrims on a two day visit arrived at the sacred Katas Raj temples in Chakwal district near capital Islamabad on Friday and were overwhelmed by the official reception.
While the TN Government Railway Police sleuths are questioning five passengers, the commissioner of railway safety commenced inquiry over the mishap in Madurai.
With this batch as many as 53,995 yatris from different parts of the country have left for the cave shrine since the commencement of yatra on June 10.
A pilgrim, identified as Muhammad, said, "We had to go to the Holy Haram early in the morning without a wash. We thought our complaints would be attended to by the time we returned. But we found that our complaints fell on deaf ears."
Sources told rediff.com over telephone that the pilgrims were sitting on the platform of the lorry, which was filled with sand. Most of the pilgrims had died owing to suffocation as the sand in the platform of the lorry had fallen over the pilgrims once the lorry toppled.
After being delayed by landslides for two days, pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath yatra resumed their journey on Saturday.
Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday spoke to Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and urged him to evacuate pilgrims stranded in Uttarkashi region of Uttarakhand in the aftermath of flash floods there.
'We cannot endanger our national security by indulging in false bravado, fake narratives and high-decibel whitewashing. As a nation, we have to collectively fight the scourge of cross-border terrorism'
The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday defended its directive requiring eateries along the kanwar yatra route to display the names of their owners and staff, saying the idea was to bring in transparency, avoid 'potential confusion' and ensure a peaceful yatra.
Kiran Bala, who went to Pakistan to attend the Baisakhi festival, changed her name to Amna Bibi.
Five pilgrims, including two women, died enroute the 3,880 metre high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, taking the toll during the ongoing yatra to six, police said on Wednesday.
The recent terror acts are a sign of our enemy's desperation, he said, in an apparent reference to Pakistan.
Mumbai's historic tryst with the Lord of Wisdom began at the Keshavji Naik Chawl in 1893.
The high commission of India in Dhaka and the assistant high commissions in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna have been assisting in the voluntary return of Indian nationals, he said.
The pilgrims have brought with them an expensive velvet chadar for making a collective offering at the tomb of the Sufi saint.
The government will review the weather conditions in the coming days and accordingly take a decision in the interest of the pilgrims, he said.
A massive operation is on to flush out the remaining holed-up terrorists.
Twenty-four pilgrims were killed and 75 others injured when the truck they were travelling in over turned in Rampur Jhajjhar village along the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border in the wee hours on Tuesday.
'People want to do business in the name of the Kedarnath temple.'
Police said there were intelligence inputs that attempts would be made to trigger violence during the match, because of which it was cancelled.
All the five passengers were safe.
The dead were identified as belonging to Punjab province. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
New Zealand Sikh Society spokesman Daljit Singh, who was in contact with some of the missing pilgrims, said the Indians claimed to be victims of an immigration racket and were charged thousands of dollars by an agent in India on a false promise of permanent residency.
Sheikh Salim Gafur has been selected for the honour as he displayed some rare grit and bravery and continued to drive the bus of the Amarnath pilgrims, which came under attack by the terrorists on July 10, 2017, in Jammu and Kashmir, a home ministry official said.
Rescue of pilgrims stranded in Badrinath came to an end on Tuesday with about 150 of them being safely evacuated even as the administration struggled with the task of supplying relief to remote parts of Uttarakhand where foodgrain shortage has been reported in 170 villages.
On the Opposition's poll promise of statehood restoration, Shah said, "I want to ask Farooq Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, who is going to restore the statehood. You cannot give it back. Why are you misleading the public?"
Pakistan on Friday summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner Gopal Baghlay to lodge a protest over denial of visas to some 500 Pakistani pilgrims to visit the famed shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer.
President Pratibha Patil on Saturday condoled the death of Sabarimala pilgrims in a stampede at Pullumedu in Kerala's Idukki district.In a letter to the Kerala chief minister and governor, she expressed grief over the tragedy.Patil wished a speedy recovery to all those injured in the incident that took place on Friday night. Over 100 pilgrims returning from the shrine were killed and 50 others injured in the stampede.
