Srinagar, July 3 -- Srinagar- The annual Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra commenced on Friday with thousands of devotees setting out from the twin base camps of Baltal and Nunwan-Pahalgam for the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine in the south Kashmir Himalayas, where more than 12,000 pilgrims offered prayers on the opening day of the 57-day pilgrimage.

The pilgrimage began early in the morning simultaneously via the traditional 48-km Nunwan-Pahalgam route in Anantnag district and the shorter but steeper 14-km Baltal route in Ganderbal district, even as intermittent rain lashed parts of the region.

Amid chants of "Bam Bam Bhole" and "Har Har Mahadev", batches of pilgrims, including men, women, elderly devotees and sadhus, began their onward journey to ...