Jammu, July 30: This year's Amarnath Yatra seems to have given a befitting reply to separatists and extremist groups who were hell-bent on disrupting the religious pilgrimage for their vested interests.
The figures put forth by the government on Monday revealed that on the 33rd day of the ongoing Shri Amarnathji Yatra, 3,827 Yatris paid obeisance at the Holy Cave and cumulatively since the beginning of the pilgrimage on 28th June 2018, 2 62,314 yatris had darshan at the Holy Cave.
During last year's Yatra of 40 days, the total number of pilgrims who visited Holy Cave Shrine was 2,60,003, whereas this year the pilgrimage has crossed this number in 33 days, despite interruptions due to torrential rains.
The figures are enough to make it clear that the holy pilgrimage has given a tough reply to the separatists and the extremist groups at large.
For more than 60 days each year, between July and August, over half a million Hindus take the perilous five-day trek, known as the Amarnath Yatra, to pay homage to Lord Shiva, the destroyer god in the Hindu trinity.
The pilgrimage route goes to the Amarnath cave, located 3,800 meters above sea level, which houses a nine-foot-tall ice sheet considered to be the symbol of lord Shiva, one of the most revered of Hindu gods. The journey is assisted and supported by Indian army and the state government.
On July 10 last year, militants targeted a bus ferrying Amarnath Yatra pilgrims in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, killing seven and injuring 19 people. This was the biggest attack on the annual pilgrimage since 2000, when 21 people were killed in a grenade attack by militants.
So far, 44 pilgrims have been killed by militant groups during various attacks in Kashmir. Following the killings in 2000, six pilgrims were killed in 2001 and eight pilgrims were killed the year after that. The pilgrimage first started when a shepherd discovered the peculiar ice formation in the cave in the late 1700s, which a Hindu priest visited and declared the mythical home of Lord Shiva. Until the Indian state was formed in 1947 pilgrims were only few a thousand, mostly ascetics and pilgrims from adjoining areas. Numbers rose in the mid-1980s and then dipped when armed militancy hit the region. The number of pilgrims steadily increased to 600,000 in 2010 and the duration of the pilgrimage, traditionally two or three weeks, was slowly widened to a six and then eight.
The separatists and the militants have always been at the forefront to disrupt the annual pilgrimage and have been seen quiet often indirectly threatening the devotees.
Syed Ali Geelani who on May 3, 2015, while addressing a rally in south Kashmir's Tral area had said that the Amaranth Yatra in south Kashmir Himalayas should be restricted to 30 days. He even stated that the government is carrying out a hidden agenda in the form of the Amarnath Yatra.
Due to last year's deadly attack, it was apprehended that the number of the devotees may dwindle. However, contrary to everyone's belief, the high number this year is showing to the world that devotion comes first even if amid the heightened threats and intimidations. |
