149th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra passes off peacefully in Ahmedabad; lakhs throng the 16 km route

Ahmedabad, Jul 16 (PTI) The 149th Lord Jagannath Rath Yatra passed off peacefully in Ahmedabad on Thursday as lakhs of devotees thronged the 16-km procession route amid unprecedented security cover of more than 30,000 personnel backed by AI-powered surveillance, officials said. The annual procession began at around 7 am from the 400-year-old Jagannath temple in Jamalpur after Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel performed the traditional 'Pahind Vidhi', a symbolic ritual of sweeping the path of the three chariots of Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Balbhadra and sister Subhadra with a golden broom. Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the temple at around 4 am and participated in the pre-dawn 'Mangla Aarti' before the idols of the deities were placed on their respective chariots, which were then pulled out of the temple premises by members of the Khalasi community, in keeping with the centuries-old tradition. The Rath Yatra, taken out every year on Ashadhi Bij, the second day of the Hindu month of Ashad, stretched nearly 1.5 km and comprised the three chariots, 18 decorated elephants, nearly 100 trucks carrying tableaux, about 30 akhadas and religious congregations, and around 20 bhajan mandalis. The procession moved through communally sensitive areas such as Jamalpur, Kalupur, Shahpur and Dariyapur before returning to the temple late in the evening after nearly 14 hours, officials said. Displaying the spirit of communal harmony, members of the minority community welcomed the chariots at several locations in Muslim-dominated localities with garlands and offerings. As part of a long-standing tradition, Jagannath temple chief priest Dilipdasji Maharaj, who accompanied the procession in an open jeep, was presented with a shawl and a garland by local Muslim leaders at Dariyapur during the return journey. A similar gesture was witnessed in Shahpur, where former MLA Gyasuddin Shaikh garlanded the chief priest and released pigeons as a symbol of communal harmony. Thousands of devotees and spiritual leaders were served traditional community meals across Saraspur's 'pols' or local societies after the Rath Yatra reached there, which is regarded as the maternal home of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra. Participants from the 'akhadas', tableaux, and thousands of other devotees made their way to the community kitchens housed in the narrow 'pols' such as Limbda Pol, Kadiyawad, Gandhi ni Pol, Luhar Sheri, Vaniyawad, Vasan Sheri, Thakorwas, Panchawad and Ambliwad, where residents kept a centuries-old tradition alive by preparing and serving food to all irrespective of caste and creed. More than 30,000 security personnel, including city police, Home Guards, State Reserve Police, Rapid Action Force, Border Security Force and specialised Chetak commando teams, were deployed to ensure a peaceful procession, officials said. Police created a multi-layered security grid that had around 2,000 personnel moving with the procession, while more than 250 rooftop surveillance points and another 250 observation points in bylanes monitored sensitive locations. More than 3,700 CCTV cameras fed live images to 12 control rooms, while AI-enabled video analytics tracked crowd movement, they said. Police also deployed facial recognition technology using a database of over 65,000 criminals, more than 100 drone cameras for aerial surveillance and two anti-drone jamming guns to prevent unauthorised drone activity, officials added. No major untoward incident was reported during the day, police said. Meanwhile, the '108' emergency ambulance service attended to 53 medical emergencies during the procession. These included 18 cases of people fainting, five cases of breathing difficulties and four road accident cases, officials said. PTI PJT KVM PD BNM