Chants of "Bam Bam Bhole", "Har Har Mahadev" and "Jai Shri Ram" rent the air as the pilgrims' convoy was flagged off by Additional Director General of Police, Jammu Zone, Mukesh Singh

A total of 1,338 pilgrims, including 907 men and 411 women, left for the Budha Amarnath shrine in Poonch's Rajpura village in a convoy of 29 vehicles. The convoy was escorted by paramilitary forces, officials said

Representatives of religious and social organisations, including Vishva Hindu Parishad national general secretary Vinayakrao Deshpande and Bajrang Dal national convenor Neeraj Doneria, attended the flagging off ceremony at the Bhagwati Nagar base camp

Before the yatra was flagged off by Singh, a puja was performed amid the chanting of shlokas and mantras

Speaking to reporters, Singh said the Budha Amarnath Yatra is one of the most important Hindu pilgrimages in north India and adequate security arrangements have been made to ensure a smooth pilgrimage