The pilgrims will have to pay Rs.20,000 as air fare this time, which is Rs 4000 more than that last year. Besides one of 21 embarkation points -- Patna -- has been replaced by Gaya this time due to certain technical difficulties.
Six more Amarnath pilgrims died en route to the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, taking the toll during this year's pilgrimage to 67, officials said.
About 200 Hindu pilgrims cancelled a proposed visit to a temple in Pakistan on Saturday after they were asked by the authorities to go to the trouble-torn country at their own risk.
The Sikhs arrived by special trains to Lahore, capital of Pakistan's Punjab province, on Wednesday and will stay for a week. The pilgrims will visit various temples in the country.
Evacuation of stranded people from flood-hit areas of Uttarakhand on Saturday picked up pace with security forces rescuing 17 foreign tourists from Dharasu and sighting 1000 pilgrims stuck between Kedarnath and Gaurikund, even as bad weather hampered chopper operations at some places.
The electoral battle in Varanasi, according to locals and political experts, is not about whether the PM will win for a third successive occasion, but if he will increase his share of the votes polled and his win margin.
The Indian Sikhs were in Pakistan to to participate in the celebrations marking the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. They met Sharif, who's father hails from Jati Umra, a village near Amritsar, at his home in Lahore.
Amid the global scare following the outbreak of swine flu, Saudi Arabia has asked Haj pilgrims to provide health certificate showing that they have received flu shots two weeks prior to their departure for the holy sites in the country, health ministry said.
The Travancore Devaswom Board that governs the affairs of Sabarimala has been entrusted to form an expert committee to come up with a detailed project report for transforming Sabarimala into a national pilgrimage.
Modi brought up the emotive issue of the gurdwara in Kartarpur Sahib, a place sacred to Sikhs as Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life there, and blamed the Congress for country's partition, saying they did it for sake of power.
Shattered and still tense from their harrowed experience, over 100 pilgrims reached in Chandigarh on Friday on two state owned buses from flood ravaged areas around the Sikh shrine of Hemkunt Sahib in Uttarakhand.
The consulate officials said the two were in good health and their relatives have been informed of their impending release. The case has shocked hundreds of expat families in the Kingdom.
Sooraj, hailing from Elanthur in Pathanamthitta district, was one of the main accused in the incident which took place on Tuesday when the hill shrine was opened for the two-day-long "Chithira Atta Thirunal," a special ritual.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
NDRF director general Atul Karwal told PTI that the teams are undertaking continuous familiarisation exercises and conducting simulation drills in the temple town to respond to any contingency.
Twenty-three Shia pilgrims, including women, returning from Iran were killed on Tuesday when a powerful bomb blast hit a bus in the restive Balochistan province of southwest Pakistan.
More flights will be added from India to Saudi Arabia this year.
The BJP often forgets that in Dravidian Tamil Nadu, the voter does not mix religion, which is personal, and politics that is in the public sphere, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
In the backdrop of protests being faced by Sri Lankan pilgrims in Tamil Nadu, the island nation's government is arranging a special plane to take them back home on Tuesday. "We get reports that some people follow the pilgrims' groups, intimidate, abuse and even attack them with stones," Sri Lanka Deputy High Commissioner R K M A Rajakaruna said.
Sixteen Amarnath pilgrims were killed and 16 others injured when a truck carrying them plunged into a deep gorge in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir late on Thursday night.
The Light and Sound show at Jyotisar, Sri Krishna Museum and Panorama Science Centres in Kurukshetra also remained open throughout the night for the convenience of the tourists.
A man touches the place where the idol of Lord Ram will be placed.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the first batch of 4,890 pilgrims from the Jammu base camp.
The worst terror attack in Iran this century occurred when Iranians marked the fourth anniversary of Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander General Qassem Soleimani's death. Soleimani was killed by a US drone on January 3, 2020.
North India is convulsed with spiritual excitement over the pran pratishta at the Ram temple. But what do folks in Tamil Nadu think about the events in Ayodhya?
The Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh will launch the first train carrying Hindus on an officially sponsored free pilgrimage to Haridwar and Rishilesh on March 14.
The 'Maharishi Valmiki International Airport, Ayodhyadham' has become the 68th civil airport terminal in the country to come under the umbrella of the specialised aviation security group of the central force.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal on Wednesday warned that they will not allow pilgrims to reach the Ajmer Dargah, where the annual Urs has begun, unless the Jammu and Kashmir government withdraws its latest order revoking the transfer of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.Bajrang Dal Rajasthan unit's convenor Mahendra Singh Meena said that Hindu activists of the saffron outfits would block buses carrying pilgrims in Rajasthan during the two-day bandh.
The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Jammu and Kashmir government to pave the passage from Panchtarni to Amarnath holy cave with pre-fabricated cement tiles to ensure that pilgrims do not slip on the way.
Nearly 1,000 pilgrims are stranded in various areas of Garhwal following a series of landslides in Uttarkashi and Chamoli districts.
Specially designed coaches for adverse weather conditions have been inducted for rail travel in Kashmir Valley.
The order led to panic in Kashmir which has remained tense for the past few days after the Centre ordered deployment of 100 companies of additional troops in the valley.
Sivadasan's family has demanded a probe into his death.
Twelve people were today killed when the jeep in which they were travelling rammed into a bus that was carrying foreign tourists, police said here. According to the police, the Tata Max jeep was carrying 13 pilgrims who had gone to the Prabhunath temple in Nepal.
One more pilgrim on Monday died while returning from 3,880-mt high Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, taking the death toll in the ongoing yatra to 98.
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