Security shortage postpones Kashmir soccer event

SRINAGAR, India, June 20 (Reuters) - India has postponed a national soccer championship in Kashmir until next year as its schedule next month clashed with an annual Hindu pilgrimage and troops could not guard both, an official said on Wednesday.

The revolt-torn Himalayan region was to host the Santosh Trophy, India's national soccer tournament, in July for the first time in nearly three decades following a decline in separatist violence.

"Santosh Trophy has been postponed until May because dates are clashing with Amarnath Yatra," Babu Singh, Kashmir's sports minister, told Reuters.

"The focus of the security apparatus would be on the yatra only. The availability of security forces is (a) must to ensure safe conduct of the tournament."

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus undertake the Amarnath Yatra or pilgrimage every year to a cave shrine at an altitude of 13,500 feet (4,115 metres) to worship a stalagmite which represents a form of Lord Shiva.

The pilgrimage, which begins on June 30, has been targeted several times in the past by Islamist separatist militants fighting against Indian rule in the disputed region.

Thousands of troops guard the 380-km (240-mile) route of the two-month pilgrimage from Jammu, the state's winter capital, up to the Amarnath cave, which passes along icy streams and frozen mountain passes.

Shifting the tournament to a later date in Kashmir this year after the pilgrimage was over might have entailed weather-related problems, while a move to other venues in India could have encountered logistics difficulties.

The sports minister said the popular annual domestic tournament for the Santosh Trophy would be played in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir.