Amarnath pilgrim dies of cardiac arrest, toll rises to 6

One more pilgrim died today of cardiac arrest enroute the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir, taking the total number of pilgrim deaths to six, even as over one lakh people have paid obeisance at the cave shrine within a week, officials said.
Surinder Dutt Biyas (65), a resident of Rajasthan, died of cardiac arrest near Sheshnag along the traditional 42-km Pahalgam route in Anantnag district of South Kashmir this afternoon, the officials said.
The pilgrim death toll in the ongoing yatra is now six including a woman tourist from Delhi. Two pilgrims from Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, died on July 2 and 5.

Efforts are on to bring down the body of the deceased, officials said.
They said the yatra was going on smoothly from the twin routes of Pahalgam and the shorter 16-km Baltal route in Ganderbal district and so far over one lakh pilgrims have paid obeisance at the cave shrine, housing the naturally formed ice-shivlingam.
As many as 86,696 pilgrims had offered their prayers till last night, the officials said, adding an average 15,000 pilgrims visit the cave shrine daily.

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Till this evening, 1,03,063 pilgrims had darshan of the ice lingam at the cave shrine of Amarnath, an official spokesperson said.

On the sixth day of Amarnath yatra this year, 15,593 yatris paid obeisance at the holy cave.
As many as 1,867 pilgrims today left the Jammu base camp for the yatra.
The latest batch, comprising 1,464 men, 262 women and 141 sadhus and others, left in a cavalcade of 55 vehicles from Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 5 AM, a police official said.
With today's batch, 10,872 pilgrims have left from the Jammu base camp for the pilgrimage.