SRINAGAR:The ice-capped Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest battlefield at a height of 18,800 ft, kept its date with the first International Yoga Day with soldiers of Army’s 14 Corps performing asanas at minus four degree Celsius.
Leh, Kargil and other forward posts along the border also witnessed yoga day events. “Soldiers performed yoga at the forward posts in the Siachen Glacier. The Leh event was attended by over 500 personnel, including officers, junior commissioned officers and jawans of the Leh Garrison,” said Jammu-based defence spokesman Col S D Goswami.
He said trained instructors demonstrated the correct postures for various asanas and explained their benefits to soldiers.
The rest of Jammu and Kashmir also struck a yoga pose, despite opposition by a socio-religious outfit and overnight protests by university students.
The biggest function in the Valley was at Bakshi Stadium here, where over 1,200 NCC cadets and 800 to 1,000 students assembled in the morning and joined Army personnel to mark the day.
The students of Central University of Kashmir in collaboration with Government College of Physical Education, Ganderbal, held a session at university’s Nowgam block in the outskirts of Srinagar.
Srinagar-based defence spokesperson Lt Col N N Joshi said NCC Group Headquarters in Srinagar held events at eight venues in Kashmir and Ladakh -- Srinagar, Baramulla, Uri, Bandipura Tangdhar, Anantnag, Kargil and Leh.
“Over 4,700 NCC cadets participated with zeal and enthusiasm across these venues. The NCC cadets had been undergoing structured training in yoga since mid-April. That was evident in their synchronised and well-timed performance,” he said.
Jamaat-e-Islami, a socio-politico-religious-outfit, had earlier opposed yoga. “Yoga is not a simple exercise, but a religious exercise-cum-prayer of a particular polytheistic community in which, besides physical exercises, some religious practices of this particular community are intermixed,” Jamaat spokesman advocate Zahid Ali had said.
The University of Kashmir students had also held night-long protests in its Srinagar campus against the event.