Amarnath yatra begins, tight security all around

Srinagar: The annual Amarnath Yatra has been officially flagged off from Jammu; thousands of pilgrims are reaching the base camps in Jammu, Pahalgam and Baltal for the darshan through snowbound and treacherous routes.
The first batch consisting of 2,294 pilgrims was flagged off from Bagwati Nagar base-camp in Jammu around 0430 am.
Additional companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu and Kashmir Police have been deployed along the entire yatra route for safety of the pilgrims.

Security arrangements for the smooth conduct of the yatra were finalised on Saturday at a high-level meeting of police, civil and paramilitary officers at Police Control Room in Srinagar.
A total of 3.5 lakh pilgrims have already been registered for the yatra which will conclude on August two on Raksha Bandhan.
Geared up to ensure an incident-free and peaceful pilgrimage, CRPF has activated its security set-up and deployed 57 companies for security of the Yatra. He said of these, 12 companies have been put on job for security of Amarnath yatra in Jammu region, while 45 companies have been deployed in the Valley for the yatra.

“As many as 57 security companies have been deployed for the yatra in Jammu and Kashmir,” a senior CRPF officer told.