Navratri festival begins amid heightened security

Jammu, Mar 30: Serpentine queues of devotees amid an aura of spirituality pervading the temples across Jammu region marked the auspicious beginning of Chaitra Navratri on Sunday.

Multi-layer security arrangements, specially in and around religious places, were put in place to avoid any untoward incident during the festive ambience lasting nine-days.

The day also marked the commencement of Hindu New Year.

Beautifully decorated temples dedicated to Goddess Durga, Goddess Kali and their other incarnations, in particular, witnessed huge rush of devotees since early morning.

Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine nestled in Trikuta hills in Reasi district; Bawe Wali Mata temple in Jammu; Kol Kandoli temple in Nagrota, Chichi Mata temple in Samba district and Sukrala Devi temple in Kathua district drew maximum crowd of devotees.

Special prayers, Jagrans, Langars mark the nine-day Navratri festival as the devotees also observe fast during this period.

Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary, DIG Jammu-Samba-Kathua (JSK) range Shiv Kumar Sharma besides others also paid obeisance at Bawe Wali Mata temple facing Tawi river.

Around 50,000 pilgrims paid obeisance at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine on the first day of Chaitra Navratri amid heavy security arrangements.

CEO Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB), Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anshul Garg, while speaking to media, stated that adequate arrangements for security and crowd management were made across the route to the holy shrine.

He said that the number of registration counters for ID cards too were increased. For specially-abled devotees, free Aarti and PCO services were also started.