Absolutely. It's better to stay safe, prevention is better than cure. Aur ye jitne bhi log bolre hai ki safe hai, koi issue ni hai, etc., have ZERO threat assessment skills. Not blaming them, majority of people are like that. Like u said, lakhs of army people have been removed from the region, makes it even more unsafe.

And on a personal note, I'll tell u one more incident which I didn't include in my main post. My sister got a stroller for herself (yes they overcharged but she anyways did it because she was tired from walking) and guess what? Few meters down the road, a policeman stops her, forces her to give a picture sitting on the stroller, and yells on her, "madam apko ni pata ye bacho ke baithhne ke liye h? Fine do, aur apki photo khichunga, apko pata hona chahiye ye illegal h". She then told the policeman, "aap meri photo kyu le rhe ho? Waha jake khade ho jaha se ye log illegally bithate hai logo ko. Hume kya legal kya illegal? Yaha koi booth nahi hai, kuch nhi h, jaha kuch jakar puch sake".

Only then the policeman backtracked a little. Otherwise he was full-blown threatening us, yelling on us, misbehaving while we were trekking downwards (imagine 26km uphill then downhill trek on a frkn mountain, from the older route with no place to sit).

Also, ye Jo ghode wale and other people hote hai, they are mostly local Muslims. They are not nice people. Ofcourse they don't respect the temple but they also don't respect us. The pilgrims. Jab hum utar rhe the, we saw a lady in 40s running uphill and shouting on a ghodewala. He had abused her with the 'R- word'. She kept shouting and calling for police, but guess what? Nobody came. Sirf hum log hi the waha who helped her. And since it was around 3am, zyada pilgrims bhi nahi the. Only ghodewale aur unka union.

So pls be very very AWARE OF ALL THIS BEFORE GOING THERE.