CLOSE SCRUTINY: Pilgrims waiting to be frisked before being allowed into the base camp at Pahalgam (above); at makeshift security counters, every piece of baggage is X-rayed

As the sun sets, the day begins. This apparent paradox is a daily occurrence in Pahalgam, 90 km from Srinagar and overlooking the Pir Panjal mountain ridges in south Kashmir. By day, the once bustling tourist destination remains desolate. Every evening, as the base camp for the 32-day Amarnath pilgrimage, it relives its past glory.

Before sundown on July 24, a 250-vehicle convoy carrying 3,000 pilgrims from Jammu swarms the town's outskirts. Guided and guarded by security personnel, the tired pilgrims briskly wind their way through a slew of body and baggage checks into the heavily fenced and barricaded Nunwun camp, roughly the size of a football ground, for their night halt. Inside, loudspeakers blare out devotional songs. But as darkness descends, the cacophony suddenly dies down; securitymen have cautioned the pilgrims that the noise from the loudspeakers may drown the crackle of firing in a militant attack.

On the face of it, it is a yatra driven by faith and dogged by fear. Though no stranger to militant threats and attacks since 1993, security agencies are pulling out all the stops to keep terror at bay throughout the 400 km, mostly mountainous and forested pilgrimage route from Jammu to the holy cave tucked away in the Himalayas at 13,500 ft. The security umbrella put in place for the expected 1.6 lakh pilgrims is unprecedented, both in terms of numbers and coordination on the ground. It involves more than 15,000 personnel drawn from the army, the state police and paramilitary forces-the BSF, CRPF and ITBP.

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A lot has to do with the high stakes that Delhi has in ensuring the safe conduct of the pilgrimage. The Government is on its toes since assembly elections are due in the state in October. With the Pakistan-backed militant groups making no secret of their plans to derail the election process, guarding the yatra is a litmus test for security agencies. "Pulling off an incident-free yatra would not only bolster the anti-militancy drive but also put security forces in command of the situation in the run-up to the elections," says Jammu and Kashmir DGP Ashok Kumar Suri. The communal violence in Gujarat has also made the Hindu pilgrimage "highly vulnerable" to reprisal attacks by the militants.

ON THE TERROR TRAIL: Sniffer dogs check for explosives at a camp in Jammu (above); police scrutinise permits of the yatris (below)

It took the authorities three months to work out and put into practice the new tactics. Governor G.C. Saxena, a former raw chief himself, laid down a clearly delineated chain of command among the security agencies which have been assigned specific roles to avoid the kind of confusion that led to overreaction by security forces during the Pahalgam attack in 2000 when 35 pilgrims were killed. While the army has been deployed on the mountainous heights on the yatra route, the BSF-ITBP formations are securing the roads against landmines and strikes by militants. The camp security of the yatris has been entrusted to the CRPF and the state police. The army began the sanitise-and-secure exercises on the mountain flanks in early June and the 30-odd paramilitary companies which were to shift out of the Valley at the end of their tenure in June have been asked to stay on for another two months.

Security officials feel the protective cover for the yatra is an extension of the anti-militancy drive. "The focus this time is more on qualitative surveillance than on numerical deployment," says IG (Kashmir) K. Rajendra Kumar. Fidayeen (suicide) attacks on civilian targets, a new phenomenon, coupled with the upcoming assembly elections have turned the yatra into a "logistical nightmare". For the first time, the daily flow of yatris from staging points in Jammu has been regulated, restricting them to 3,500 (2,700 from the traditional Pahalgam route and 800 through the Sonemarg-Baltal axis). And for better protection cover, the pilgrimage rush has been staggered up to August 22. The faithful are transported on the Jammu-Srinagar highway in a convoy of vehicles escorted by roughly 150 security personnel at both ends. In Jammu, the police have stationed quick reaction teams of personnel drawn from the battalions with experience in anti-militancy operations.

SECURITY: BLANKET COVER « Over 15,000 army and paramilitary personnel provide three tiers of security for the yatra. « Pahalgam base camp shifted out of town to prevent militants from mingling with locals. « 1.12 lakh pilgrims registered for the 32-day yatra but 1.6 lakh are expected to undertake the trip. « All yatris frisked and their luggage X-rayed at camps in Jammu and Pahalgam. « Quick Reaction Teams deployed in Jammu to ward off or react to any militant attacks. « Contingency plan for aerial evacuation in case of militant strikes or natural disaster. The Amarnath Yatra 2002 gets under way amidst unprecedented and innovative safety measures. Security forces have a tough task at hand.

A key feature of the new security apparatus is the reinforcement of camp security at Pahalgam. Unlike in the past, the camp has been relocated 1.5 km away from the town and is surrounded by an 8-ft-high barbed wire fence. The underlying idea is to pre-empt militants from merging with the local population, as happened in 2000 when they conveniently disappeared after the strike. Apart from frisking each pilgrim and putting every piece of baggage under the X-ray scanner, the Nunwun camp has been heavily fenced and barricaded to thwart any suicide attack. Both entry points are guarded round the clock by teams of 30 crack commandos each. "The militants' modus operandi has been factored into the camp layout," says Superintendent of Police (Pahalgam) Vijay Kumar.

Ironically, the security cover this time has been upscaled, despite no militant outfits overtly threatening the yatra. But police officials feel it is a tactical silence on the part of the militants to catch the security forces off guard. Security agencies are even looking at the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen's assurance on not disrupting the yatra with suspicion. "That is a familiar ploy by militants to blame the Indian security agencies for the carnage of innocents," says an intelligence official. Officials are not underplaying the militants' desperation either. The killing of nine militants, including an IED expert of the dreaded Jaish-e-Mohammed, in the Banihal area-close to the yatra route-in the past one week is seen as an indicator of their ominous intent. A few days before the yatra began, a landmine explosion on the Baltal-Sonemarg route killed three soldiers.

The threat potential is all the more real in Jammu, a soft underbelly that militants have been attacking to trigger communal flare-ups. While the Qasim Nagar massacre a week before the yatra began on July 18 underscored the city's vulnerability to audacious attacks, the smashing of two modules of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba last month has alerted the security agencies to the militant group's insidious plans to establish its base in the border city.

Chaotic even at normal times, Jammu has been swarmed by pilgrims-the daily arrivals number between 2,000 and 3,000. What is adding to the security concern is the arrival of a large number of pilgrims much before their scheduled date of pilgrimage.

The security of the pilgrims is not the only thing worrying the authorities. The treacherous weather is also keeping them on tenterhooks. The suspension of the yatra for even a day-as happened on July 22-threatens to create a spillover of pilgrims and throw the security envelope haywire. In 1995, unexpectedly heavy snowfall and rains beyond Sheshnag had exacted a heavy toll-262 pilgrims had perished in one of the worst pilgrimage tragedies.

Despite the overriding militant threat, the yatra is drawing more pilgrims than expected. "Going by the initial pace, the number of the pilgrims is all set to cross the registered quota of 1.12 lakh," says Divisional Commissioner (Kashmir) and CEO of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board Parvez Dewan. The annual march may attract 1.6 lakh, an increase of 10,000 over last year. Clearly, faith is getting the better of fear. Most of the pilgrims brush aside the risks, saying they had only steeled their resolve to undertake the yatra.

Having turned the pilgrimage into an extension of the anti-militancy grid, security agencies are counting the "positive fallout" that may accrue if the yatra goes off peacefully. The downside staring them in the face is that a major militant attack breaching their impregnable security cover would be a shot in the arm for the jehadis. The state police is desperately seeking additional paramilitary troops for mounting security arrangements in the run-up to Independence Day, a period when militants generally heighten their activities. Clearly, the Government has much higher stake in an incident-free yatra, and the authorities would be on a wing and a prayer until August 22, the day the yatra winds down.