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Emergency staff rescued hundreds of pilgrims after flash floods swept via their makeshift camps throughout an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a Himalayan collapse Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at the least 16 individuals and injuring dozens, officers stated.
Authorities suspended the pilgrimage for 2 days because the sudden rains continued to lash the area. Groups of rescuers from India’s navy, paramilitary and police in addition to catastrophe administration officers combed via the slippery mountain tracks and used thermal imaging gadgets, sniffer canine and radars to find dozens of lacking individuals. Civilian and navy helicopters evacuated the injured to hospitals.
1000’s of individuals had been within the mountains when the rains struck. Officers stated about 15,000 devotees had been moved to safer areas and at the least 5 dozen injured individuals obtained first assist at base camp hospitals arrange for the pilgrimage, which is undertaken by tons of of hundreds of Hindus from throughout India.
Ravi Dutt, a 69-year-old Hindu ascetic from japanese West Bengal state, who was tenting close to the cave, stated water gushed down from a mountain “sweeping away males, girls and our belongings too”.
He added: “Every part was buried beneath a mountain [of mud and rocks]. I’ve by no means seen such an incident in my life.”
Abdul Ghani, a Kashmiri porter who rents his pony to pilgrims, stated it was chaos. “I simply bundled a devotee on my pony and by no means appeared again,” he stated.
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, expressed anguish over the deaths. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s prime administrator within the area, stated: “Our precedence is to avoid wasting the lives of individuals. Directions have been issued to supply all needed help to pilgrims.”
The Amarnath pilgrimage started on 30 June and tens of hundreds of devotees have already visited the cave shrine the place Hindus worship Lingam, a naturally shaped ice stalagmite, as an incarnation of Shiva, the god of destruction and regeneration.
This yr officers anticipate practically 1 million guests after a two-year hole because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The cave, at 4,115 metres (13,500ft) above sea stage, is roofed with snow a lot of the yr aside from the quick summer season interval when it’s open to pilgrims.
Tons of of pilgrims have died previously resulting from exhaustion and publicity to harsh climate in the course of the journey via the icy mountains. 1000’s had been caught in a freak snowstorm in 1996, resulting in greater than 250 deaths.
The pilgrimage concludes on 11 August, a full-moon night time that Hindus say commemorates Shiva revealing the key of the creation of the universe.
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Other than weather-related hazards, officers have stated pilgrims face an elevated menace of assaults from Muslim rebels who’ve fought for many years in opposition to Indian rule. This yr, for the primary time, devotees are tagged with a wi-fi monitoring system. Tens of hundreds of police and troopers additionally guard the routes.
The pilgrimage has been focused previously by suspected rebels, who accuse Hindu-majority India of utilizing it as a political assertion to bolster its declare on the Muslim-majority disputed area.
A minimum of 50 pilgrims have been killed in three dozen assaults blamed on militants since an armed riot started in Indian-controlled Kashmir in 1989 for the area’s independence or a merger with Pakistan, which controls a part of the territory.
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