Jammu, July 23
Chaotic scenes were witnessed here today with pilgrims bound for the Amarnath shrine spending the night sitting in buses as they were not allowed to proceed to the camping grounds in MAM Stadium. Protesting pilgrims were even lathi charged yesterday.

Hundreds of buses and other vehicles carrying pilgrims had lined up between the stadium and Gandhi Nagar area.

A batch of about 4,000 pilgrims was allowed to proceed to Pahalgam today after the suspension of the yatra yesterday. However, this has not helped in bringing down the number of stranded pilgrims as there was an uncontrolled flow of vehicles from outside the state. It is estimated that about 8,000 pilgrims were stranded here in the morning and their number was expected to further swell towards the evening as buses from Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Delhi and other places were heading here.

The J and K Government has been again caught napping. Pilgrims were seen wandering in the city. Many were seen cooking food on the pavements or near the stranded buses, while some were seen perched on top of buses.

Life here has been affected as traffic has been disrupted at many areas, particularly around the Tawi bridge, where a large number of buses carrying the pilgrims are parked.

The Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, Mr Rohit Kansal, told TNS that those persons who had come here without proper registration would be sent back and not allowed to proceed for the pilgrimage.

He said situation was expected to normalise by tomorrow as the weather had improved and some rush had been cleared.

Mr Kansal said the problem had arisen as a large number of such persons who had not got themselves registered had reached here for the pilgrimage. Many persons, who had been given specific dates for the pilgrimage, had also reached here in advance.

He said camps had been set up at 20 places in the city and food was being provided to pilgrims.

Meanwhile, the police resorted to a lathi-charge on irate pilgrims who blocked traffic on the Tawi bridge last evening to protest against the mishandling of the situation by the authorities.