Jammu : Hours after bad weather along both north and south Kashmir routes on Thursday halted the Amarnath Yatra, it resumed following improvement in weather around afternoon.

Authorities allowed pilgrims to move towards the Cave Shrine from north Kashmir’s Baltal base camp although the Yatra continued to remain suspended from Pahalgam base camp in the south.

Earlier an official said: “It has been raining along both Baltal and Pahalgam treks to the Cave Shrine since early morning. All the pilgrims are safe. They have been advised not to proceed till the weather improves.” 

The Amarnath Yatra was officially started early on Thursday, after batches of pilgrims started their progress to the camps on Wednesday.

The MeT has forecast rain and thundershowers in the valley for the next 48 hours till Saturday.

A total of 3,425 pilgrims left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu in two batches at 3.55 a.m. and 4.20 a.m. amid tight security for the two base camps.

Thursday’s batch included 2,679 males, 592 females, three children and 151 Sadhus, the police said.

The 60-day long Amarnath Yatra will end on August 26, coinciding with the Shravan Purnima festival.

Stressing on the security arrangements made for the Amarnath Yatra, Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra on Thursday urged the pilgrims to have faith in the armed forces.

Vohra, who is also the chairman of Shri Amarnath Ji Shrine Board (SASB), told the pilgrims that they should have confidence in the security forces.

“There won’t be any difficulty in the yatra,” Vohra said. 

In 2017, eight pilgrims were killed and 13 others injured in the attack on an Amarnath yatris bus.