Jammu, Aug 5: Authorities on Sunday decided to temporarily suspend the ongoing Amarnath Yatra from Jammu to the cave shrine in the Kashmir Valley for two days due to a separatist-called protest shutdown.

The complete protest shutdown in the Valley was called to support Article 35A that gives special powers to the state legislature. According to the police, no pilgrim was allowed to move from the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas here.

Special check-posts have been set up in Udhampur and Ramban to ensure that the movement of pilgrims does not take place on the Jammu-Srinagar highway which passes through these two districts.

However, pilgrims camped at the Baltal and Pahalgam base camps in the Valley will continue to perform the Yatra, officials said.

Since the annual pilgrimage began on June 28, over 2.71 lakh pilgrims have performed it so far. The Yatra will end on August 26 coinciding with the Shravan Purnima festival.

 

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Mumbai, Jan 16 (PTI): A staff nurse at the house of actor Saif Ali Khan, who was attacked by an unidentified intruder early Thursday morning, recounted the horrifying incident in her statement to the police and said the man demanded Rs 1 crore when confronted.

The intruder first entered the room of Saif and Kareena Kapoor-Khan's younger son Jeh, said Eliyama Philip, the complainant in the case.

The stabbing attack inside his 12th floor apartment in Bandra left Saif Ali Khan severely injured with a piece of knife in his spine, necessitating an emergency surgery.

As per Eliyama Philip, employed as caretaker and nurse for Jeh, she woke up around 2 am after hearing a sound in Jeh's room and found the bathroom light on.

Philip had given dinner to Jeh on Wednesday night and put him to sleep around 11pm. She too slept on the floor in the same room along with a nanny.

"I sat up to see who was in the bathroom when I saw a short, thin man come out and move towards Jeh's bed. I immediately stood up," she said in the statement.

The man pointed a finger at her and said in Hindi, "Koi Awaaz Nahi (don't make any sound)."

"I still walked towards Jeh to wake him up. The man had a wooden stick in his left hand and in his right hand he had a long, hacksaw-like blade. He rushed towards me," Phillip said.

"In the scuffle, he attacked me with the blade. I got hurt on my wrist. I asked him what he wants. He said he wants money and he needs Rs 1 crore," said Philip, who has been working with the Khan couple for four years, in her statement.

The nanny raised an alarm, and Saif and Kareena ran to the hall where the intruder and the two women were now standing.

"The intruder attacked Saif. All the other staff of the house too came running," the statement said.

Phillip and others ran out of the room in panic as the intruder scuffled with Saif. When they went back, the main door was open and the intruder was gone.

Saif was injured in the back of his neck, right shoulder, back, wrist of the left hand and elbow. There was a lot of blood, Philip said.

As per the complaint, the intruder was around 35 to 40 years old.

CCTV footage obtained by the police showed the man escaping through the staircase.

More than 20 teams have been formed to nab the suspect, said Satyanarayan Choudhary, joint commissioner of police (law and order.)