As the ongoing rescue operations in the Amarnath cave shrine area are nearing completion with hopes of finding any survivors fast fading away, the engineering wing of the Indian army supported by jawans drawn from various other agencies Sunday pressed heavy machinery in to service to restore the damaged yatra trek ahead of resuming pilgrimage to the cave shrine at the earliest.
The commitment displayed by the Indian army could be gauged from the fact that over one dozen men from the engineering regiment pulled up an excavator weighing 3 Tons using ropes via Baltal.
In addition, heliborne operations continued to drop the essential supplies and engineering stores at various locations. In a statement, Srinagar based Defence PRO said, "Indian Air Force had deployed 2 MI-17 and 04 Cheetals for ferrying relief material and equipment". A total number of 43 sorties were flown despite bad weather conditions till 2.00 p.m in the area. 34 pilgrims were shifted and NDRF personnel including 6 canines were transported from Srinagar to the holy cave".
On ground zero, the rescue workers were still looking for any survivors. The locations identified by the dog squad were thoroughly scanned using sophisticated hand held thermal imagers to detect any sign of life buried under the debris. Around 40 pilgrims remain untraceable ever since incessant rains washed away tents, langars near the cave shrine leaving at least 16 pilgrims dead and over 100 others injured.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha also visited Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam where he interacted with the pilgrims and assured them the yatra would be resumed at the earliest.
Office of LG J&k tweeted, "Visited Nunwan, Pahalgam earlier today. Army, CAPFs, NDRF did a commendable job during the rescue & relief operation. Efforts are underway to repair the road. We are hopeful to resume the Yatra as soon as possible". In a separate tweet, the LG said, "Interacted with yatris staying at the base camp. Reviewed the arrangements at healthcare facilities, langars. Providing better facilities to pilgrims is our top priority".
As the yatra remained suspended for the last two consecutive days, a huge rush of pilgrims was awaiting the start of the pilgrimage from both the Baltal and Pahalgam route.
In Jammu, the civil authorities are struggling to cope up with the increasing rush of pilgrims awaiting their turn to embark on the forward journey from the yatri base camp. To prevent assembly of a large number of pilgrims the entry has been restricted at the yatri base camp in Bhagwati Nagar. Pilgrims reaching here in Jammu were directed to visit other lodgement centres in and around Jammu but they were not ready to go there.
"After reaching here in Jammu the local administration is not allowing us to enter the yatri niwas at Bhgawati Nagar'', a pilgrim said.
"The staff deployed here are directing us to visit other lodging centres. We are outsiders and in the absence of any dedicated transport facility we find it difficult to reach there".
"We requested them to allow us to stay here but they refused claiming the yatri niwas is already packed with pilgrims and there is no space left to accommodate more pilgrims", another group member claimed on Sunday even as operations continued.