Army on Thursday said that it was ready for the Amarnath Yatra and has taken all necessary steps for it even as the decision to conduct the annual pilgrimage to the cave shrine lies with civil administration.
On 22 April, the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which organises the annual yatra, announced to “temporarily” suspending of the registration of pilgrims for the pilgrimage.
The board had started registration of pilgrims online from 15 April for the Baltal and the Pahalgam routes, which leads to the cave shrine. The 56-day yatra pending any further decision is scheduled to start from 28 June.
Addressing reporters here, Chief of Army Staff, General MM Naravane, also said that situation along LoC as well as on the hinterland has greatly improved even as he urged people of J-K to shun the path of violence as “it will not take you anywhere.”
“After being briefed by Commanders on the situation, both on LoC and hinterland, I am glad to say that all the parameters we judge the normalcy by, have seen great improvement. There have been few (militant) initiated incidents.
There have been hardly any cases of stone pelting, any cases or nil cases of IEDs in the recent past and all these are indicators of return of sense of normalcy,” he said as per GNS correspondent, adding, “these are all indicators that awaam (people) also wants the same and that is very good thing that is happening. In this context of return to normalcy, we are from our side prepared for Amarnath Yatra and have taken all the necessary steps for the smooth conduct of Yatra. Of course, the decision to conduct Yatra or not lies with the civil administration.”