Amid tight security, the 48-day long annual Amarnath yatra on Friday began in Jammu in the shadow of the recent terror attacks in the state, with Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh flagging off the first batch of 1,282 pilgrims for the cave shrine in South Kashmir Himalayas.
Drones are being used for aerial security of the Amarnath base camp at Bhagwati Nagar area of Jammu city for the first time while at least 20,000 security personnel have been deployed along the two routes.
"Adequate security has been put in place to ensure smooth and peaceful conduct of Amarnath yatra this year," Singh said.
The first batch of pilgrims, comprising 900 men, 225 women, 13 children and 144 sadhus, left in a convoy of 33 vehicles escorted by Central Reserve Police Force personnel from Bhagwati Nagar base camp at 5 am on Friday, a police officer said.
Chanting 'Bam Bam Bholay' and singing bhajans, the pilgrims, who reached the Bhagwati Nagar base camp from various parts of the country, left for their onward journey to Pahalgam and Baltal base camps from where they will proceed to the cave shrine, located at a height of 3,888 metres, on Saturday.
The state is reeling under increased terrorist incidents and attacks on security forces in the Kashmir Valley, posing a huge challenge to the security apparatus in ensuring a peaceful and incident-free Amarnath yatra.
Eight CRPF personnel were killed and at least 21 others injured when two terrorists attacked their convoy at Pampore in Pulwama district on June 25.
As many as 12,500 central paramilitary personnel and 8,000 state policemen will be deployed along the two routes in South Kashmir's Pahalgam and Northeast Sonamarg.
To review the overall security situation in the state, espacially the arrangements for the yatra, Union home minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Srinagar on Friday afternoon on a two-day visit.
He, along with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, will attend a high-level meeting to review the overall security situation in the state and the arrangements made for the annual yatra.
The meeting will also be attended by senior officers of civil administration, army, paramilitary forces and police.
The Union home minister will visit the cave shrine on Saturday to participate in the puja which marks the beginning of the yatra.
Talking to reporters after flagging off the yatra at Bhagwati Nagar base camp, the Deputy Chief Minister said adequate security forces have been sent by the central government to ensure a safe yatra.
Flanked by Minister of State for Tourism Priya Sethi and BJP MP Jugal Kishore, Nirmal Singh said that the state government and Shri Amarnath Shrine Board have made all arrangements with regard to boarding and lodging, medical and other facilities en route the cave shrine from Lakhanpur to Amarnath cave for the pilgrims.
He said that special enquiry centres have been set up by police and other agencies for all type of information, particularly the weather conditions en route to the pilgrims.
The deputy CM said that security forces and police are on high alert and all required measures have been taken to preempt and thwart any attack in future.
He said that 'due to continuing pressure of security forces/police, the terrorists are now indulging in attacks on soft targets and at crowded places for revival of waning militancy in the state'.
"The year 2016 has registered an increase in the killing of terrorists by over 110 per cent," he said while making a statement regarding the security situation in the state.
As an increased security measure, drones have been inducted for aerial security and crowd management at Amarnath base camp in Jammu winter capital city.
"With upgradation in technology, many new electronic surveillance systems have been inducted in the security set up," a senior police officer said.
CRPF will be using the drones for security of Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu and a monitoring centre has been set up at the camp. "This will be in addition to the manual security in and around the base camp", the officer said.
With inputs from Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar.
