By IANS,
Srinagar : Two Amarnath cave shrine-bound pilgrims died Wednesday at north Kashmir Ganderbal district’s Baltal base camp, a police official said.
Muzaffar Ahmad Shah, deputy superintendent of police (Ganderbal), told IANS that Nathu, 58, son of Rajmul Sindi of Pune in Maharashtra and Karamsar Singh, son of Balbir Singh of Gurgaon in Haryana, died on way to the holy Amarnath cave shrine Wednesday.
“Both the pilgrims died of natural causes. While Nathu died due to cardiac arrest, Karamsar Singh died of brain haemorrhage,” Shah said.
He said there was a heavy rush of pilgrims from the north Kashmir Baltal route.
“By today (Wednesday) afternoon, over 15,000 pilgrims reported at Baltal for onward journey to the cave,” Shah said.
Two private companies, Deccan Aviation and Indo-Himalayan, are providing helicopter services to the pilgrims at Baltal.
The fare for a pilgrim from Baltal base camp to the cave shrine and back is Rs.6,400 while one-way carriage fare for a pilgrim is Rs.3,200.
The helicopter companies are accepting 50 percent online bookings while 50 percent seats are made available to pilgrims at the spot.
Both the companies have kept two helicopters each at Baltal.