Efforts on to resume Amarnath Yatra soon

New Delhi: Efforts are underway to resume the Amarnath Yatra, Jammu and Kashmir's top official said on Sunday, appealing to pilgrims to come and assuring them that all facilities will be provided.

At least 16 people died after a flash flood triggered by heavy rains near the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir swept away several people on Friday evening.

Lt Governor of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir Manoj Sinha, on a visit to the Nunwan base camp for the cave shrine in Pahalgam, commended the security forces and the administration for an 'efficient' rescue operation and said the damaged path to the shrine is being repaired so that the Yatra could be resumed positively by Tuesday.

The pilgrimage has been suspended from Jammu due to inclement weather conditions and no fresh batch was allowed to proceed from there to the base camps of the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine, officials said. At least 15,000 pilgrims have been shifted to the lower base camp, while more than 40 people are still missing, they said.

The Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police continued the rescue operation as they looked for missing persons in the affected area at the lower Amarnath Cave site. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has sent three teams comprising about 75 rescuers, an official said.

The annual 43-day pilgrimage commenced from the twin base camps -- Nunwan-Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag and Baltal in central Kashmir's Ganderbal -- on June 30. It yatra is scheduled to end on August 11 on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.