Undettered by the grenade attack on pilgrims at Baltal, the number of Amarnath pilgrims arriving in Jammu from different parts of the country has again increased as 18th batch of 1,259 pilgrims left for the holy cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas on Friday.
The batch, including 683 men, 306 women, 36 children and 234 sadhus, left in a fleet of 34 vehicles from the base camp of MAM stadium here around 0600 hrs amid tight security, officials said.
The fleet of vehicles carrying pilgrims crossed Kud around 1000 hours and is expected to reach the base camps at Nunwan in Pahalgam and Baltal in the Kashmir valley by evening.
Only 943 pilgrims left for the shrine, at a height of 3,880 metre, on Thursday, they said.
Security arrangements have also been strengthened along the highway from Jammu to the base camps following the grenade attack at Baltal camp on Tuesday evening in which one pilgrim was killed and 17 others injured.
With Friday's batch, about 36,391 yatris have left for the cave shrine since commencement of the pilgrimage on July two.
Though the pilgrimage was to start from June 30, however, the authorities had deferred it as the national highway was blocked due to landslides following rains, they added.