After three days, the Amarnath yatra continues from the Panjtarni and Sheshnag base camps in J-K

According to authorities, the Amarnath yatra began again on Sunday from the Panjtarni and Sheshnag base camps after being postponed for three days owing to bad weather in Kashmir.

The officials unlocked the gates and let the trapped worshippers to perform prayers at the naturally created ice-lingam in the south Kashmir Himalayas as soon as the skies above the cave shrine cleared, they said.

“Those devotees who had already performed ‘darshan’ have been allowed to return to Baltal base camp,” a senior officer at the Panjtarni base camp told PTI over the phone.

More than 700 Amarnath pilgrims who were stuck owing to heavy rain in the valley were taken in by the Army at its camp in Qazigund in the Anantnag district.

Due to bad weather and the shutdown of the Jammu-Srinagar national highway earlier in the day, no further pilgrims from Jammu were permitted.

Over 3,500 cars were left stuck on the highway when it was blocked by many landslides and washed away a roughly 40-meter length of road in the Ramban area, according to authorities.

Some places close to the high-altitude Amarnath temple received snowfall in addition to the nonstop rain that has been falling in the majority of Jammu and Kashmir since Thursday night.

The weather is expected to become better starting on Monday, according to the meteorological authority.

Incessant rain, according to the authorities, made it difficult to clear the Jammu-Srinagar national route.

“An effort to remove landslip debris and use an old road alignment to bypass the damaged section of the road near the Panthiyal tunnel is now underway. The rehabilitation work was delayed by the regular stone-throwing from Panthiyal’s hillocks that overlook the roadway, according to a traffic department official.

Before permitting new traffic from Jammu and Srinagar, he added, the road’s stalled cars will be removed on a priority basis once it was rendered passable.

The Mughal road has been blocked, according to the official, by a recent landslip near Ratta Chamb.

The official said that while the road was once again closed by a new landslip late on Saturday afternoon after it had been freed for traffic.