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| | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, June 27: The first batch of Amarnath yatris was flagged off from base camp in Jammu's Bhagwati Nagar amid tight security this morning.
The yatra was flagged off at 4.50 am by BB Vyas and Vijay Kumar, Advisors to Governor NN Vohra. Top police officers from Jammu city were also present on the occasion. Chanting 'bum bum bhole' and 'Har Har Mahadev' slogans, the devotees of Lord Shiva left in buses, mini-buses and cars from Jammu to Pahalgam and Baltal base camps in Kashmir valley.
The flagging off ceremony of the first batch of the yatris was also attended by National Conference leaders Devendra Rana and Surjit Singh Salathia. BJP MLC Vikram Randhawa also participated in the event and welcomed the pilgrims.
Unperturbed by the looming terror threat, pilgrims who set out on the Amarnath Yatra on Wednesday said their unflinching faith in Lord Shiva and the security forces had motivated them to undertake the journey to the cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas. Chants of "Bam Bam Bhole" and "Bharat Mata ki Jai" filled the air as the enthusiastic pilgrims, including 520 women and 21 children, left the base camp. They are scheduled to reach the Baltal and Pahalgam base camps in Kashmir later in the day.
"We have come for the yatra on the call of 'Barfani Baba', leaving everything, including the fear of terror attacks, behind," Susheela, a spirited 65-year-old from Uttar Pradesh, told PTI. She is leading a group of 21 people, including her grandchildren.
Susheela said it was her first visit to the cave shrine and it had materialised after many years. Lauding the authorities for the "best possible arrangements", Arun Sharma from Meerut, part of a 22-member group, said, "We have full faith in our security forces".
A Jaipur resident, Udash Goyal, who is here with seven other members of her family, said their fear disappeared soon after reaching the base camp and they were feeling good. As many as 120 'sadhus' have also joined the yatra. "I have been coming for the yatra regularly for the past 27 years and this year too, I am going to seek peace and prosperity for the mankind," Raman Mani from Nashik's Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple said
Vehicles tagged with electromagnetic chips, bike and bullet-proof SUV police convoys and scores of bullet-proof bunkers have been deployed as part of the "biggest-ever" security blanket thrown to secure pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath Yatra that begins in Jammu and Kashmir today.
Forces have deployed a huge assortment of CCTV cameras and drones, assisted by mounted Army columns, to ensure that the yatra route is not breached by terrorists and in case of a possible attack reinforcements reach as fast as possible.
"Each vehicle that has pilgrims and is part of the yatra is being tagged using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and they will be monitored at a control room made operational in Srinagar.
"Security forces have been given specific responsibility to sanitise routes and secure a select number of pilgrim vehicles by sandwiching them between bullet proof troop carriers," a senior security official told PTI.
The CRPF road clearing parties will keep sweeping yatra roads against possible improvised explosive device (IEDs) threats to yatra convoys from early morning till late evening, he said. The top official added that these arrangements are the "biggest-ever deployment of the security paraphernalia to ensure protection to the annual yatra that comes in the backdrop of a long and turbulent time of violence in the Kashmir Valley."
The RFID tagging of vehicles concept has been introduced for the first time after taking a lesson from last year's militant attack on a civil vehicle in Anantnag district that left eight pilgrims dead and several injured.
"Thousands of such tags have been purchased and are being stuck on vehicles. They cost about Rs. 72 a piece and they will help give a clear picture to security forces in case a yatra vehicle is lost in the way or takes a wrong route. QRTs will immediately be scrambled to track such a four-wheeler," a CRPF officer said.
P P Pauly, Commandant of the 73rd battalion of the force, said a control room has been created at his camp in Bemina to track all the RFID-bearing vehicles even as a 100 personnel strong squad has been kept on standby to respond to any untoward incident.
A special desk has been set up at the Srinagar International Airport by the CRPF to register pilgrims and to tag their vehicles from there, in an extension to the exercise that is taking place at the land borders that leads to Jammu and Kashmir. |
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