Amarnath terror attack: Woman pilgrim succumbs to injuries, death toll climbs to 8

Written By DNA Web Team | Updated: Jul 16, 2017, 10:50 AM IST

Indian paramilitary troopers stand guard outside the pilgrimage base camp at Pahalgam in Anantnag district, southeast of Srinagar, during the annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine cave on July 11, 2017.

The pilgrims were killed by militants in Anantnag district while returning from the Amarnath cave shrine on the evening of July 10.

A woman devotee, injured in the deadly militant attack on Amarnath pilgrims, succumbed at a hospital early on Sunday, taking the death toll in the incident to eight.

Lalita, 47, succumbed to injuries at the SKIMS Hospital here, a police official said.With this, the death toll in the 10 July attack has climbed to 8. 

Meanwhile, amid tight security, the sixteenth batch of 3,398 pilgrims on Saturday left Jammu for the 3,888-metre Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva in the south Kashmir Himalayas.

Escorted by the CRPF and police, the batch consisting of 2,535 males, 758 females, 100 sadhus and sadhvis, and five transgenders left in a convoy of 191 vehicles for Baltal and Pahalgam base camps this morning, officials said.

With this batch, a total of 50,028 pilgrims have left Jammu for Amarnath in 16 batches since the yatra began from Jammu on June 28.

Over 1,86,853 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the cave shrine till last evening.

The yatra will conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on August 7.