Sevadar dies, Amarnath toll mounts to 11

A ‘sevadar’, working at a community kitchen, died due to cardiac arrest at the Baltal base camp in Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, raising the toll in the Amarnath yatra to 11. Sevadar Vinod Kumar Yadav of Uttar Pradesh breathed his last at the Baltal base camp on Wednesday night along the shorter 12-km track to the cave shrine, officials said.

Eleven people, including a CRPF jawan, have died in the yatra. A pilgrim identified as Bahbah Bharat of Gujarat fell from a horse while on way to the cave shrine near Sangam along the Baltal route and suffered injuries. He was shifted to hospital, the officials said.

They said the yatra was smooth from the Baltal, as well as the 42-km traditional Pahalgam routes in Anantnag district of south Kashmir.

About 5,658 pilgrims had ‘darshan’ of the ice-lingam at the cave shrine till 1 pm on Thursday , they said. So far, 1,51,862 pilgrims have visited the shrine since the commencement of the yatra on July 2. The 48-day yatra is scheduled to end on August 18, coinciding with ‘Shravan Purnima’ and ‘Raksha Bandhan’ festivals.

Taking note of reports that Amaranth pilgrims are being “over-charged” on their return from Baltal and Srinagar to Jammu, state Transport Department said it had made adequate arrangements for transportation of the pilgrims.