Indian defence bases well protected: Army chief

Against the backdrop of attack by militants on a Pakistani air force base, Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh today said Indian military installations are "well protected and defended".

Against the backdrop of attack by militants on a Pakistani air force base, Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh today said Indian military installations are "well protected and defended".

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"We have our procedures in place. All our bases are protected and there are Standard Operating Procedures and our bases are well defended," the Army Chief told reporters on the sidelines of an event to felicitate Army sports persons.

Gen Singh said the armed forces also had the "means to generate intelligence regarding such threats that may come up to these bases".

Indian armed forces have taken several measures to strengthen their security to protect against such threats in the last few years, he said.

A group of terrorists armed with sophisticated weapons and suicide vests today stormed a key Pakistan Air Force base in Punjab province that is believed to house nuclear weapons, triggering an intense gun battle that left seven attackers and a security personnel dead.

Asked to comment on the violence in Assam, Gen Singh said the Army was "fulfilling its constitutional obligation" there. Fresh incidents of violence were reported in Assam's Baksa and Kamrup (Rural) districts where unidentified persons set ablaze a car, a bus and a wooden bridge.

Baksa, in lower Assam and under the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD), was one of the districts affected in the recent clashes between Bodos and immigrants that has claimed 77 lives so far.