Press Trust Of India
AMARNATH, INDIA, July 31, 2003: Amarnath is one Hindu pilgrimage run and managed to a large extent by Muslims in the militancy-tormented Kashmir valley in the northern tip of India. Nearly the entire infrastructure back-up for the month-long annual Amarnath Yatra, in which devout Hindus trek the arduous terrain to pay obeisance to an annual ice formation as a symbol of Lord Siva, is provided by Muslims, making it what locals describe “as a symbol of Indian brotherhood.” Mushtaq Ahmed sells religious items like photographs, saffron headbands and food for the yatra. He is one among more than a hundred Muslims who have set up a string of makeshift-shops in the run up to the cave selling religious items. Thousands of tentwallahas, horsemen and “pitthus” (luggage carriers) consider it their duty to ensure each pilgrim have the darshan of the Holy Lingam. They also call it their ‘”rozi-roti” (literally, “job and bread,” like the expression “bread and butter”) which enables them to earn and save for the rest of the year. Though community kitchens, set up at all major stops en route the cave shrine, have made the yatra a trifle easier, pilgrims concede that but for the locals who work as pony-men, tent-men and pitthus, the arduous 20-mile trek at 14,000 feet in the ice-clad Himalayas is impossible.