Jammu Tawi, July 03
A total of six Amarnath pilgrims have lost their lives owing to various causes while they were en route to the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in Himalayas in Kashmir.
The six deceased include two from Andhra Pradesh and one from Uttarakhand.
The sixth batch of 3,489 Amarnath pilgrims left Jammu for the 3,888-metre-high cave shrine on Tuesday. The pilgrims, including 774 women and 237 sadhus, left for the cave shrine in 114 vehicles from the Bhagwati Nagar base camp.
Thota Radhnam, a 75-year-old woman from Fiwalayam in Andhra Pradesh, died of suspected cardiac arrest in a community kitchen at Baltal base camp this morning, a police official said.
Radha Krishna Sastry (65), hailing from Anantpora in Andhra Pradesh, also died due to cardiac arrest at Sangam near the holy cave, the official said.
He said the bodies of the deceased pilgrims have been kept at the Baltal base camp hospital for further legal proceedings.
A pilgrim, Pushkar Joshi, a resident of Uttarakhand, who was injured due to a shooting stone between Brarimarg and Railpathri yesterday, succumbed at a hospital in Srinagar early today, the official said.
With these, the death toll in this year's Yatra has gone up to six including three pilgrims, one BSF officer, one palanquin carrier and one Yatra volunteer.
