Annual pilgrimage season of Hemkund Sahib shrine begins in Uttarakhand
Led by the 'Panj Pyaras', approximately 5,000 devotees gathered to witness the much-anticipated moment.
Dedicated to Shri Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, the shrine holds profound spiritual significance for Sikhs.
Preparations for the opening began on Saturday with a Shabd Kirtan and the Bhog ceremony of the Akhand Path at the Govindghat Gurudwara.
Early Sunday morning, the first batch of pilgrims, led by the 'Panj Pyaras' and accompanied by a band from Punjab and the Army, commenced their journey towards Hemkund Sahib from Govindghat.
Chanting "Jo Boley Sonihal, Sat Sri Akaal," groups of devotees, known as 'jathas', made their way up the arduous path before the official opening ceremony.
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Time of India
10 hours ago
- Time of India
J&K: Cloudburst survivors recall 'miraculous' escape
Nine-year-old Devanshi was among the hundreds of pilgrims who had gathered here for the last leg of the yatra to Machail Mata temple when tragedy struck on Thursday. Buried under mud and debris when a Maggi-point shop was hit by flash floods, she emerged hours later, rescued by her uncle and other villagers. Independence Day 2025 Op Sindoor to water cutoff: PM Modi slams Pak in I-Day speech GST reforms by Diwali to cut daily-use taxes: PM Modi Terrorism, tech, more: PM's I-Day speech highlights "I couldn't breathe. My uncle, bouji, and others removed wooden planks after hours, and we all came out. Mata saved us," she says, the terror still vividly reflected in her voice. Like her, 32-year-old Sneha is still in disbelief that she is alive. Moments after loading luggage onto their vehicle, she and her four family members were swept away in a roaring torrent, buried under mud and crushed beneath a vehicle. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Pensioners Can Buy These Electric Cars in Malaysia - See Prices Here! Electric Cars | Search Ads Search Now Undo "I was trapped in mud under a vehicle, surrounded by bodies - some of them children with broken necks and severed limbs. I lost hope of my survival," she says. Somehow, they clawed their way out. At least 60 people lost their lives when a massive cloudburst led to flash floods in this remote mountain village in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district. Live Events Every survivor here carries a story about escaping from the very jaws of death. "We stopped at a Maggi shop. People told us to run (because of the cloudburst), but we stayed back, thinking it was safe here," Devanshi says, narrating her ordeal. Within minutes, a large mass of mud collapsed over the shop. "Mata saved us," she repeats as she recounts how her family members and villagers pulled her out of the debris. She was taken to a hospital along with other family members, where she was given first aid. Sneha from Jammu says she had felt it was all over for her after being washed away and buried under a vehicle. "As we reached our vehicles, we heard a loud bang and saw a cloudburst over the hill," she recalled. In no time, a wall of mud, boulders, and trees swept them towards the Chenab River, trapping them. "My father managed to free himself first, then helped me out. I pulled my mother out from under an electric pole. She was barely conscious and badly injured," she said. She said some villagers were washed away into the Chenab. "Bodies lay everywhere. The entire hill had come down. Even the Thakur ji idol of Chittoo Mata Temple was washed away before our eyes." Sneha says the swift action of officials, police, the Army, CRPF, and locals saved countless lives. "Within an hour, vehicles arrived to take the injured to hospitals. If they had been late, many more would have died," she said. The sudden roar of water, the deafening blast, and the avalanche of mud, boulders, and trees turned Chositi village into a scene of unimaginable destruction within seconds. A cloudburst high above the hills triggered flash floods that swallowed homes, vehicles, and lives, leaving survivors in shock and grief. The shocking scenes of physical and psychological trauma unfolded on a massive scale as search and rescue operations were underway, digging out mud-buried bodies and rescuing the injured. Sudhir from Udhampur was with a group of 12 when the "sky and earth seemed to collapse together". "After the blast sound, the whole area was filled with fog and dust," he recalled. "Most of my group members were trapped in slush. My wife and daughter were buried under other people. At the bridge construction site, I saw dozens swept into the Chenab. It took seconds for the hill to bury everything." Blood-stained bodies, mud-filled lungs, shattered ribs, and deep wounds packed with stones - these are just some of the harrowing injuries sustained by people, including pilgrims and security personnel, caught in the aftermath of the catastrophic cloudburst in the foothill hamlet of Chositi. Undergoing treatment at the hospital, Sunita Devi from Nanak Nagar said, "I was running when I fell, and some women fell on me. An electric pole hit me and I got a severe shock. I was looking for my son the whole time. We all survived... Mata Rani saved us." Others were not so fortunate. Uma from Jammu clung to a vehicle tyre to avoid being swept away. "A policeman saved me. But my sister, Gahna Raina, is still missing," she said. Vaishali Sharma, who was in a 15-member group, said they ran into a shop for shelter when told about the cloudburst. "It was around 12:15 PM when we neared the bridge. We were told to run and took shelter in a shop, but it caved in under mud and boulders. I was caught between the rocks. I don't know where my parents are. Thanks to the Army, I and five others were rescued." Rescuers, including personnel from the Army, police and CRPF and villagers, continued to pull out survivors and retrieve bodies late into the night. Officials said the quick response helped prevent a higher death toll. Additional Superintendent of Police Pradeep Singh said all forces were engaged in the massive search-and-rescue effort. "SDRF, Army, CRPF, CISF, Police - everyone is on the ground". He said that locals too played a huge role, especially over 20 bikers led by Ganga Ram, who ferried injured people from Chositi to Hamori as the road was cut off by the flooded nallah. "Without them, more lives would have been lost." "This has been a battle against death," a rescue worker said.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
46 dead, 100-odd injured, many missing as cloudburst wipes out pilgrims' camp in J&K's Kishtwar
JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Flash flooding within moments of a cloudburst Thursday wrought tragic devastation on a pilgrimage pit stop at Chishoti in J&K's Kishtwar district, killing at least 46 people – most of them pilgrims on the return leg of the Shri Machail Mata Yatra – and injuring over 100. Scores of pilgrims were reported missing as Army, police, NDRF and other agencies mounted a search operation and rescued around 160 people in the few hours before dusk set in. Most of the reported casualties were found around a langar (community kitchen) set up for pilgrims, officials said. " I am unable to hold back my tears. The situation is bad," PTI quoted BJP's Kishtwar MLA Shagun Parihar as saying from Chishoti. At Paddar, the town closest to the disaster zone, leader of the opposition Sunil Sharma told reporters that 100-odd people were missing. "There are mud-caked bodies and critically injured people all around. The death toll could rise," he said. The cloudburst occurred between noon and 1pm, causing rapidly filling rivulets to swamp a swathe of the valley. The camp set up for pilgrims bore the brunt of the damage, leaving a mud-filled gorge where the langar stood. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Undo Floodwaters washed away several other structures, including a security post. Dozens of vehicles were damaged. "Two CISF personnel were among the victims. Many of the pilgrims who died were having lunch in the langar when disaster struck," an official said. Chishoti is about 90km from Kishtwar town and the last stop before pilgrims trek 8.5km to the ancient Machail Mata shrine. The 43-day Shri Machail Mata Yatra, which commenced on July 25 and was to continue till Sept 5, has been suspended. "I just spoke to the Union home minister @AmitShah to brief him about the developing situation in Kishtwar region of Jammu," CM Omar Abdullah wrote on X, also announcing the cancellation of his scheduled "At Home" tea party on Independence Day. "My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the cloudburst and flooding in Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir. The situation is being monitored closely. Rescue and relief operations are underway. Every possible assistance will be provided to those in need," PM Narendra Modi wrote on X. IGP (Jammu zone) Bhimsen Tuti said the administration had "activated" control rooms and help desks across Kishtwar to provide updates about the rescue efforts. Many of the injured are at Paddar sub-district hospital while those requiring specialised medical attention have been shifted to the district hospital in the headquarters town. "I don't have words to describe what has happened. There are scores of injured in the hospital. We don't have a count yet of how many people have been separated from their families," said Pooja Thakur, chairperson of the District Development Council of Kishtwar. J&K lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha said the IAF was on standby for evacuation of survivors from the affected zone. "Men and machinery have been put at the site. Other teams have also been rushed…I am constantly monitoring the situation."
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
I-Day Special: When Delhi's monuments became shelters
In the months after Independence, as trains crammed with refugees screeched into Delhi, the city's most iconic landmarks became unlikely shelters. At Purana Qila, thousands of refugees lived in makeshift tents under military watch, queuing daily for food and water as the fort's ancient walls became a fortress of survival; Left: Around 10,000 people settled at Kingsway Camp in a sea of tents that stretched across open fields. (Bettmann Archive) Humayun's Tomb, Purana Qila, Tughlaqabad Fort, Safdarjung's Tomb – the postcard icons of Mughal grandeur in Delhi – turned into vast refugee camps. Beneath marble domes and along crumbling battlements, tents flapped in the wind, cooking fires smoked, and families huddled under thin blankets through one of the coldest winters in living memory – or at least that's what it felt like to them. In 1947, these monuments were not backdrops for heritage walks like they are today. They were the frontlines of Delhi's post-Partition upheaval. 'It was a turbulent time,' recalled Sohail Hashmi, author and chronicler of the city's layered past. He remembers family stories of how Partition carved up not just maps, but daily lives. Muslims heading for Pakistan gravitated to Humayun's Tomb and Purana Qila – as both were within walking distance of Nizamuddin railway station, the departure point for trains bound west. Hindus and Sikhs arriving from the Punjab and Sindh provinces were steered to other camps, including Tughlaqabad and Feroz Shah Kotla. 'A fairly large settlement came up outside the Red Fort,' Hashmi said. 'People stayed wherever remains of the old city walls existed and wherever there was any shelter.' Hashmi recalled that his mother's family – her parents, three brothers, sister, sister-in-law, and two young children – were among those adrift. They set out for Pakistan, but never made it onto a train. When they returned to Purana Qila, they found themselves erased from the camp's register. 'They were told to go to Humayun's Tomb instead, but not to say they were coming from the Old Fort,' Hashmi said. 'They had to say they had just come out of hiding.' For months they moved between the two monuments, trying to keep dry in leaky government-issue tents. Hashmi remembers one story his mother told him vividly: 'She described to me the cold freezing winters they spent there. My maternal grandfather, a Persian poet, huddled in a corner during a downpour, hugging his manuscripts to keep the ink from running.' A city under strain The refugee influx swelled almost overnight. Violence erupted, pushing Muslim families from their homes in the old city toward monuments that could offer space and some measure of safety. Then came the waves in reverse – Hindus and Sikhs fleeing across the new border, in need of shelter until permanent housing could be found. 'Many of these monuments had been lived in before,' said historian and author Swapna Liddle. Purana Qila, she pointed out, still had a village inside its walls until the 1920s, when residents were relocated to make way for landscaping projects during the construction of New Delhi. 'So, when people suddenly needed housing again, it was instinctive to use these spaces.' Sites near the Yamuna, with ready access to water, became especially prized. Safdarjung's Tomb was set aside for women and children who had arrived without male relatives. Old Fort, with its massive courtyards, became a semi-permanent settlement. Markets, latrines, and even makeshift shops sprang up inside the walls. 'In some cases, people stayed for years,' Liddle said. 'When they finally left, all that construction was torn down.' Ratish Nanda, CEO of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, has pored over photographs from the period. 'You see rows of tents stretching across the lawns of Humayun's Tomb, right up to the plinth of the main chamber. These weren't temporary in the way we think of it now – they remained there for a long time.' Life between domes A 2023 research paper by Deborah Ruth Sutton, from department of history at Lancaster University, titled 'Masjids, Monuments and Refugees in the Partition City of Delhi', reconstructs that world in granular detail. She wrote that in February 1948, more than 17,000 people were living in and around Humayun's Tomb. When a fire ripped through Kingsway Camp later that year, displacing 10,000, the tomb was thrown open again to accommodate them. By January 1949, some 3,000 people remained, surrounded by hastily built latrines, bathing facilities, and brick-walled shelters. Then at Feroz Shah Kotla, Sutton found, occupation spilled beyond the official camp, creating an informal settlement in the fort's southern enclosure. And the government did not limit its commandeering of open space to ruins: even the manicured gardens of Lutyens' Delhi bungalows – including those belonging to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, and Rafi Ahmad Kidwai – sprouted tented encampments. NDMC officials, Liddle notes in her book Connaught Place and the Making of New Delhi, were 'horrified' at the thought of Humayun's carefully landscaped lawns being dug up for latrines. But at that moment, necessity overrode aesthetic preservation. The memoir In Freedom's Shade by activist-writer Anis Kidwai, originally published in Urdu, paints a searing portrait of life in these camps: the shortage of blankets, the sweep of pneumonia and influenza through tent rows, shrouds cut too short because cloth had run out, unclaimed bodies awaiting burial. These were not just shelters, but stages for grief, improvisation, and endurance. The census tells the larger story: Delhi's population surged by 90% between 1941 and 1951, transforming the city's social and physical fabric. Some refuges, however, were far from the main axis of heritage tourism. Historian Rana Safvi recounts how Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki's dargah in Mehrauli became a stopover for those crossing into Delhi. On January 27, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi arrived for the shrine's annual urs. According to his aide Pyare Lal Nayar, Gandhi was 'devastated' to see the dargah damaged in the violence, with refugees from Pakistan camped nearby. He urged them to help rebuild it and pressed Nehru to allocate ₹50,000 for repairs – an enormous sum at the time. Before leaving, Gandhi delivered what would be one of his last appeals for peace: 'I request Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs who have come here with cleansed hearts to take a vow that they will never allow strife to raise its head, but will live in amity, united as friends and brothers. We must purify ourselves and meet even our opponents with love.' From camps to colonies It would take years before the refugee population moved out of these improvised shelters. Government-planned colonies like Lajpat Nagar, Rajinder Nagar, and Jangpura eventually absorbed many of those who had once slept beneath Humayun's great dome or in the arcades of Purana Qila. The makeshift markets and shelters inside the forts were dismantled, lawns relaid, and walls patched. Yet the episode left an indelible mark on the city's monuments – and on the families who passed through them. Today, a visitor to Humayun's Tomb might pause at the symmetry of its gardens, the cool echo of its chambers, the stillness of its sandstone. Few would guess that in living memory, this quiet was once broken by the clang of tin utensils, the crying of infants, the muffled weeping of the bereaved. The marble still bears no visible trace of 1947. But for those who were there — and for the city itself — the memory remains etched, in stone, and in the stories handed down by the people who were there.
