{"id":1485,"date":"2009-06-17T17:41:51","date_gmt":"2009-06-17T17:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins.php"},"modified":"2009-06-17T17:41:51","modified_gmt":"2009-06-17T17:41:51","slug":"annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins","title":{"rendered":"Annual Hindu Pilgrimage Begins in Indian Kashmir"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SRINAGAR, India &#8211; Thousands of Hindu devotees began an annual pilgrimage Tuesday to an icy cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir amid tight security in the Muslim-majority region, officials said.<br \/>\nAt least half a million devotees are expected to make the pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine over the next two months.<br \/>\nThousands of army and paramilitary troops have been deployed along the route &#8211; which was targeted during the 1990s by the Muslim separatist rebels still fighting Indian security forces in the region.<br \/>\nThe first group of nearly 7,000 pilgrims, chanting hymns and ringing bells, began the 10-mile (16-kilometer) trek from a base camp at Baltal, said Virender Bali, a local police officer. Baltal is 70 miles (110 kilometers) northeast of Srinagar, the biggest city in the disputed Himalayan region.<br \/>\nAbout 20,000 devotees were camping Tuesday at Baltal &#8211; one of several base camps for the trek to the hallowed mountain cave, which lies 13,500 feet (4,115 meters) above sea level.<br \/>\nHindus worship a stalagmite inside the cave as an incarnation of the Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction and regeneration.<br \/>\nThe groups of pilgrims are staggered over two months for security and logistical reasons.<br \/>\nLast year, protests sparked by a planned government transfer of land to build amenities for the pilgrims &#8211; a decision later rescinded &#8211; led to a crackdown by security forces that left at least 50 dead, mostly Muslims.<br \/>\nMuslim rebels accuse Hindu-majority India of using the pilgrimage as a political statement to bolster its claim over the Muslim-majority region.<br \/>\nThe rebels have been fighting since 1989 for the independence of the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, or its merger with predominantly Muslim Pakistan, which controls another portion of Kashmir.<br \/>\n<em>Associated Press &#8211; June 16, 2009<br \/>\nCopyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SRINAGAR, India &#8211; Thousands of Hindu devotees began an annual pilgrimage Tuesday to an icy cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir amid tight security in the Muslim-majority region, officials said. At least half a million devotees are expected to make the pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine over the next two months. Thousands of army and paramilitary troops&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Annual Hindu Pilgrimage Begins in Indian Kashmir<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Annual Hindu Pilgrimage Begins in Indian Kashmir\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SRINAGAR, India &#8211; Thousands of Hindu devotees began an annual pilgrimage Tuesday to an icy cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir amid tight security in the Muslim-majority region, officials said. At least half a million devotees are expected to make the pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine over the next two months. Thousands of army and paramilitary troops&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-06-17T17:41:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Annual Hindu Pilgrimage Begins in Indian Kashmir","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Annual Hindu Pilgrimage Begins in Indian Kashmir","og_description":"SRINAGAR, India &#8211; Thousands of Hindu devotees began an annual pilgrimage Tuesday to an icy cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir amid tight security in the Muslim-majority region, officials said. At least half a million devotees are expected to make the pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine over the next two months. Thousands of army and paramilitary troops&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2009-06-17T17:41:51+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins","name":"Annual Hindu Pilgrimage Begins in Indian Kashmir","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-06-17T17:41:51+00:00","dateModified":"2009-06-17T17:41:51+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2009\/06\/annual-hindu-pilgrimage-begins#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Annual Hindu Pilgrimage Begins in Indian Kashmir"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. 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