Hindus begin Amarnath yatra amid security, cold

Hundreds of Hindus, chanting prayers, set off on Wednesday on a pilgrimage to a cave shrine deep in the Himalayas in Kashmir, shrugging off rising guerrilla violence in the troubled region, officials said.

They said thousands of policemen and soldiers had been deployed along a treacherous 30-mile mountain track which takes pilgrims to the Amarnath shrine, located at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,700 feet).