Thousands of Hindu pilgrims on Thursday began trekking along icy trails to reach a cave shrine high in the mountains of India's held Kashmir amid tight security. Every year, hundreds of thousands of devout Hindus from India and abroad make the gruelling trek to the Amarnath shrine - 3,800 meters (12,800 ft) up in the Himalayas - to see the natural ice formation that is worshipped as a symbol of Shiva, the god of destruction.
Two routes that lead to the cave shrine were heavily protected by soldiers, police and disaster forces as Islamic militants, fighting a separatist war in Indian-held Kashmir, have attacked pilgrims in the past.
"The Army provides environmental security... and helps the civil administration with medical, communication and recovery infrastructure," a military spokesman said in a statement before the start of the nearly two-month annual pilgrimage.
In 2008, the state government planned to handover a plot of land to a trust managing the pilgrimage, sparking freedom fighters claims of a Hindu takeover and anti-India protests in the region. The transfer was later rescinded. In a major attack in 2000, militants killed 32 pilgrims, and ten more were killed the following year.
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