SAMBA: Nearly 30,000 devotees from Jammu and Kashmir and outside thronged the annual mela at the shrine of Baba Chamliyal near the International Border in the Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, officials said.

The shrine of Baba Dalip Singh Manhas, popularly known as Baba Chamliyal, was considered a symbol of Indo-Pakistan bonhomie in the past but the shrine did not host any delegation from Pakistan since June 2018 after four BSF personnel, including an assistant commandant, were killed in an unprovoked cross-border firing.

In accordance with the past practice, Commandant of 101 battalion of the BSF Alkesh Kumar Sinha was the first to offer a ‘chadar' at the grave of the saint in a pre-dawn function to mark the commencement of the annual mela.