40,000 pilgrims pay obeisance at Amarnath, 4th batch leaves

The convoy has already crossed Udhampur on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway and would reach its destination by this evening

Nearly 40,000 pilgrims have paid obeisance at cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, while the fourth batch of 1,843 pilgrims left Jammu base camp the yatra, officials today said.

On the third day of Amarnath Yatra, 16,208 Yatris paid obeisance at the shrine.

"Till date 39,995 pilgrims had darshan of the ice lingam at the holy cave", an official spokesman said.

Yesterday, over 15,000 pilgrims paid obeisance there.

Amid tight security, the fourth batch of pilgrims today left from the base camp here to the shrine.

The batch, comprising 1,414 male, 312 female and 117 sadhus, left in a cavalcade of 58 vehicles from Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 4:40 a.m., a police official said.

The convoy has already crossed Udhampur on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway and would reach its destination at Baltal and Pahalgam base camps by this evening, he said.

With today's batch, as many as 6,460 pilgrims have so far left from the Jammu base camp for the Amarnath cave shrine.