Amarnath yatra on terror radar

Srinagar: In an audacious move, 11 young Kashmiri militants donning Army fatigues and holding firearms, posted their photographs on Facebook, forcing the security forces to sit up and take notice. The picture, which remained on 'Facebook' for two days, showed 11 militants, who recently joined the banned Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit.

It has disappeared from the social networking site but the move has sent alarm bells ringing in the security establishment in Jammu and Kashmir, including army and central security agencies, since the annual Amarnath pilgrimage began yesterday.

The central security agencies have sought details from the social networking site about the Internet Protocol addresses from where the photos were uplinked and then deleted, official sources said.

Those in the photograph include ex-constable of Jammu and Kashmir Police Naseer, who ran away with two AK-47 rifles while on guard duty with Altaf Bukhari, a Minister in the Mufti Sayeed-headed PDP-BJP government, and Burhan Wani, a resident of Tral, who has emerged as the young face of Hizbul Mujahideen in the Valley.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday visited the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir and performed 'pratham pooja' on the formal commencement of the 59-day pilgrimage. Singh was accompanied by Jammu and Kashmir Governor NN Vohra. On Thursday over 8,000 pilgrims left from two base camps in Kashmir for the Himalayan cave shrine.
As many as 6,065 pilgrims left the Baltal base camp in Ganderbal district on Thursday morning, while another 2,330 left from the Nunwan base camp near Pahalgam to begin their trek towards the holy cave, a senior police officer told IANS here. The two-month long Amarnath Yatra will conclude on August 29 coinciding with Shravan Purnima and Raksha Bandhan festivals.