Prepared to thwart terror design on Amarnath Yatra: Army chief Gen Bikram Singh

Acknowledging that terror threat exists to the Amarnath Yatra, Army chief General Bikram Singh on Saturday said the Army has the "operational plans" in place to prevent any such eventuality.

"This kind of threat has always been there. But we have our operational plans in place. We carry out deployment along with the state police and Central paramilitary forces for the (Amarnath) route and along the route, and it will be our endeavour to preclude any such incident," Singh said.

He was speaking to reporters after reviewing the Combined Graduation Parade at the Air Force Academy at Dundigal near here wherein 185 flight cadets, including 21 women, got inducted into the mainstream of Air Force.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde recently said that there was a terror threat to the annual pilgrimage and the government was taking precaution and sending additional forces to ensure safety and security of all pilgrims visiting the cave shrine in Jammu and Kashmir.

Nearly two-month-long annual Amarnath Yatra is scheduled to begin on June 28.

Asked on the proposal to raise 'strike corps' in the North-east bordering China, Singh replied, "The case is in very advanced stages of finalisation/consideration of Government of India."

On the defence preparedness of the country in the current scenario, the army chief said, "We are fully prepared. Country's defence is well-honed and we are fully geared to safeguard the national interest".

Responding to a query on differential budgetary allocations for the Army and Air Force, the General said, "We have been assured by the Government that we will be given funds as and when needed".

Earlier, the chief of the army staff reviewed the parade and conferred President's Commission to the flight cadets.