At least 20 Amarnath Yatra pilgrims were injured after the bus they were travelling in met with an accident in Jammu and Kashmir’s Qazigund on Thursday.
A tipper dumper rammed into the bus carrying Amarnath Yatra pilgrims at Badragund crossing on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway in Qazigund, police said.
As per latest available information, 15 passengers have died in the accident while 45 are injured.
The incident comes three days after the Amarnath Yatra resumed following a temporary halt that was necessitated after flash floods triggered by a cloudburst that struck the camps set up near the holy cave and killed 16 pilgrims.
A batch of over 5,000 pilgrims on Thursday left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp here to offer prayers at the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine of Amarnath, officials said. The 15th batch comprising 5,449 pilgrims left in a convoy of 201 vehicles for the twin base camps of Nunwan-Pahalgam and Baltal in the early hours, they said.
The officials said 1,666 pilgrims including 536 women and 43 children heading for Baltal in 61 vehicles were the first to leave the Bhagwati Nagar camp around 3.20 am, followed by the second convoy of 140 vehicles for Pahalgam, carrying 3,783 pilgrims including 702 women, 103 sadhus and 54 children at around 4.20 am.
So far, over 1.45 lakh pilgrims have offered their prayers at the cave shrine, housing the naturally-formed ice-shivlingam, despite a three-day suspension in the wake of flash floods on July 8 that left 16 people dead.
A total of 88,526 pilgrims have left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp for the Valley since June 29, the day the first batch of pilgrims was flagged off by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. The officials said eleven pilgrims have also died mostly due to health conditions during the yatra, which is scheduled to end on August 11 on the occasion of Shravan Purnima’ coinciding with Raksha Bandhan.