amarnath yarta 2011 Death toll during Amarnath Yatra increases to 18

Two more pilgrims died of cardiac arrest on Friday, taking the death toll to five in the ongoing Amarnath yatra, officials said.

A sadhu, identified as Shirla Nanda (48) from Karnataka, suffered a massive heart attack at a guest house in Pahalgam, 100 km from here, they said.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead, the officials said, adding that police cremated the sadhu according to Hindu rites.

In a similar incident, a 24-year-old pilgrim, identified as Sonu from Ludhiana in Punjab, suffered a heart attack at Yessu top after offering prayers at the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine housing the naturally formed ice-shivligam.

Jammu, July 3 : The death toll during this
year's yatra to the famous shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas rose to seven, following the death of two young pilgrims  today on way to Amarnath.35-year old Lalit Patel , A computer Engineer from
Gujarat, and a 40-year-old pilgrim,
identified as Anil Kumar of Agra area of Uttar Pradesh died due to cardiac arrest, officials said.

The annual pilgrimage began from both Pahalgam and
Baltal routs on June 29 and so far over one lakh pilgrims had
"darshan" of the naturally formed ice-lingam at the cave
shrine.