Jammu, June 3: About 300 hundred Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists were detained here on Sunday after they tried to proceed towards Amarnath cave shrine in defiance of official dates of the annual Yatra.
 The ‘ pilgrims’ assembled at Parade Ground at 9 am to participate in the VHP sponsored parallel Amarnath pilgrimage amid chanting of ‘Bam Bam Bhole’, and attempted to proceed towards valley. There movement which, however, restricted by police and security forces.
 After a minor scuffle, police the VHP activists in busses to Yatri Bahwan - the base camp for Amarnath Yatra at Bhagwati Nagar.
 District administration had already imposed section 144 CrPC in Jammu last night. No untoward incident was reported barring a mild scuffle between pilgrims and security personnel.
 Earlier, led by Jammu unit chief of VHP, Rama Kant Dubey, the activists tried to breach the cordon to proceed towards valley but police prevented them to do so.
 Criticizing the police action, Dr Dubey said, “By restricting the activists to proceed towards Kashmir, state government has hurt the sentiments of Hindus by denying them their religious rights”
 When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Sanjeev Verma said, “We had already imposed section 144 in Jammu on Saturday night as a precautionary measure because government cannot risk the lives of pilgrims by allowing them to proceed to cave shrine the entire route to which is still under snow.
 He claimed that the pilgrims have not been detained or court arrested but they were only shifted from the spot as a preventive measure to avoid any untoward incident.
 He appealed the yatris not to proceed towards cave shrine considering the hostile conditions as the whole area around the cave shrine was snow bound and it will take at least two weeks to clear the route.
 Senior office bearer of VHP, Dr Sunder Jain, while talking to Greater Kashmir said “We strongly condemn the state government for crushing the sentiments of Hindus. He threatened that VHP would not retreat and continue its attempts to proceed towards Amarnath cave shrine whatever suppressive means government may use”
 However he denied the speculation of Uma Bharti reaching Jammu saying that she is not coming here to lead the yarta.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 4 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST