A fresh batch of 3,500 pilgrims left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu on Thursday for the Amarnath cave shrine in Anantnag district, officials said.

The 22nd batch of Amarnath pilgrims, comprising 2,704 men, 675 women, 12 children, and 109 sadhus and sadhvis, left the Bhagwati Nagar base camp in Jammu on Thursday under tight security. The pilgrims departed in two convoys of 140 vehicles for the twin routes of Pahalgam and Baltal. While 2,668 pilgrims left for Pahalgam in a convoy of 95 vehicles, 832 pilgrims took the Baltal route in 45 vehicles.

With this, a total of 1,33,878 pilgrims have departed from the Jammu base camp for the Kashmir valley since July 2, when Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the first batch of the Amarnath Yatra.