Pilgrims embark on 1-day yatra to Chota Amarnath in Bandipora

Bandipora, Aug 9: Keeping with the annual tradition, local Kashmiri Pandits embarked on a one-day yatra to Chota Amarnath cave shrine in the Shamthan forests of Arin village in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district on Saturday.

Buses carrying 70 pilgrims were flagged off by the administration in the early hours from Sharda Mata Temple in Kaloosa, where the devotees, some of them now residing outside the Valley and from other parts of Kashmir besides locals, had stayed overnight before setting out for the cave shrine. “Administration and police had already made all the arrangements for the smooth pilgrimage,” Indu Kanwal Chib, DC Bandipora said. Chib also congratulated the Kashmiri Pandits for undertaking the pilgrimage. At Dardpora village, the pilgrims were welcomed by local Muslims with garlands and the rhythmic beats of the dhol played by members of the semi-nomadic community.

“I don’t feel like I have come here for the first time. There is so much support and people are so good,” Suchita Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit, whose in laws are from Bandipora but lives outside the Valley said.

Notably, the yatra, an age-old tradition, was suspended for almost a decade before resuming again in 2023. “Today we came to pray for peace and calm, and that the brotherhood we have here in Kashmir remains everlasting and 1as strong as ever,” local Pandit Behrilal rom Ajar village, said.