Fresh batch of Amarnath pilgrims leaves Jammu for Kashmir; highway blocked after landslide

After a daylong suspension, the Amarnath Yatra resumed from Jammu on Sunday, with a fresh batch of 1,626 pilgrims leaving the base camp here in the early hours to join the annual pilgrimage in the south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said.

However, they were stopped at the Chankerkote Yatri Niwas in Ramban district after a landslide blocked the 270-km Jammu-Srinagar national highway -- the only all-weather road linking Kashmir with the rest of the country -- near Keela Morh, the officials said.

They said the 34th batch of 1,626 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in a convoy of 64 vehicles between 3.30 am and 3.45 am.

While 1,092 of them are heading for the Pahalgam base camp in Anantnag district, the remaining 534 devotees are on their way to the Baltal base camp in Ganderbal district, they said.

The convoy of the pilgrims was stopped at the Chanderkote Yatri Niwas after a landslide blocked the highway near Keela Morh around 6.15 am, prompting the traffic department to advise people not to travel on the road till the restoration work is completed.

"The shooting of stones from a hillock is hampering the restoration work. The agency concerned has kept its men and machinery ready to ensure early restoration of traffic on the highway," Station House Officer of the Ramban police station Nayeem-ul-Haq told PTI.

More than 4.17 lakh pilgrims have so far visited the 3,888-metre-high Amarnath cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas since the commencement of the 62-day-long yatra on July 1.