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| Governor prays for peace, well being of people | | |
CAVE SHRINE AMARNATH, Aug 9: In serene spiritual ambience and amid chanting of Vedic hymens, Governor, Lt. Gen (Retd) S K Sinha today performed special puja on the auspicious occasion of Raksha Bandhan in the holy cave shrine of Amarnathji in the Himalayas.
Despite running high fever for the past three days, the Governor, who is also Chairman, Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB) visited the shrine and prayed for well being of the people and peace in Jammu and Kashmir.
In an informal interaction with media, the Governor recalled the presence of a pair of sacred pigeons, which he saw for the first time at the commencement of the Yatra on 11 June, and said this signified the blessings of Lord Shiva. ‘It was significant that immediately after the Pratham Pujan, there were incessant rains and intermittent snowfall for three consecutive days with 2000 pilgrims got marooned at the Holy Cave but we had not a single causality’. This was possible because the Board had constructed prefabricated shelters, he said.
General Sinha said that during the inclement weather that forced to suspend the yatra, a number of helicopter sorties were undertaken to carry pilgrims to safer destinations.
The Governor said that it was very heartening that a large number of both pilgrims from different states, NRIs and eminent religious leaders like Bapu Murari and Ma Vijya paid obeisance in the Holy Cave and were full of praise for arrangements made by SASB.
General Sinha complimented the Security Forces, who for the fourth year running, had the mountain track totally sanitized and did not allow the militants to disrupt the pilgrimage despite all their efforts. Intelligence inputs throughout the yatra revealed the nefarious designs of militants trying to disrupt the yatra. However, there were some attacks on pilgrims in the valley and in Jammu. These plus repeated attacks on tourists acted as a deterrent, he said, adding that still a large number of pilgrims had the Darshan. The reduced number of pilgrims compared to last year is much less than the reduced number of tourists coming to the Valley this year, he maintained.
The Governor complimented the people of Kashmir for their warmth and hospitality to pilgrims and also lauded the role of various Government agencies in providing facilities to them. He had a special praise for the locals for keeping available the puja material enroute the cave shrine and providing logistic support.
Principal Secretary to Governor and Chief Executive Officer, SASB, Dr Arun Kumar accompanied the Governor and participated in the puja.
Charri Mubarak led by Mahant Deependra Giri reached the Cave Shrine early morning alongwith a large number of devotees and performed the puja.
Meanwhile, a spokesman of SASB said that around three lakh pilgrims performed pilgrimage in the holy Cave Shrine in South Kashmir this year. |
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