The first batch of 1175 registered pilgrims on Wednesday left for the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir Himalayas amidst tight security from Jammu, officials said.
The batch comprising 889 men, 221 women, 22 children and 53 sadhus left in a fleet of 47 vehicles, including 23 buses, from the base camp of MAM stadium, they said.
This batch of yatris is likely to pay their obeisance at the cave shrine on July 11 as they have been provided 'darshan slips' for that date, the sources said.
Security personnel vehicles also accompanied the yatris, they said, adding the Divisional Commissioner of Jammu B R Sharma flagged off the first registered fleet in presence of various government officials.
As many as 15 batches of unregistered pilgrims comprising nearly 10,000 yatris had left here for Amarnath Yatra till Tuesday, they said, adding they all went to the cave shrine via Baltal route.
With security already being beefed up on Jammu-Pahalgam and Jammu-Baltal routes, the Yatra has remained incident-free so far.
More from rediff