The army chief also complimented the troops on ground for showing maximum restraint even in the face of grave provocation.
There were no reports of presence of the Taliban in Jammu and Kashmir, a top army commander has said, but maintained that the troops remain well-prepared to tackle threats of any nature from any terrorist group.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who made a rare visit this week to the restive Xinjiang region which borders Ladakh, met the troops and officers stationed there and praised their "outstanding contributions" to the border defence and stabilisation of the volatile province.
India on Thursday night swiftly foiled Pakistan's attempts to hit various key Indian installations including military stations at Jammu, Pathankot and Udhampur with drones and missiles, the defence ministry said.
The awards were presented by Northern Army commander Lt Gen D Anbu at an investiture ceremony.
Terming such 'unwarranted interference' detrimental to the timely response by security forces, the Army's Spears Corps shared a video on Twitter late on Monday of some such incidents.
General Manoj Chandrasekhar Pande visited forward areas in Ladakh for the first time after he took over as chief of the army staff on Saturday, May 14, 2022.
The Hardline Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday alleged that the statements made by Union Defence Minister A K Antony and a senior army commander in the Kashmir Valley were an indication that the Centre was planning to settle the armed forces permanently in Jammu and Kashmir.
China's Defence Ministry says the militaries of China and India are making "great progress" in implementing the disengagement agreement to end over four-year-long standoff in eastern Ladakh. Spokesman Sr Col Wu Qian said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Chinese counterpart Admiral Dong Jun had a positive meeting in Vientiane, Laos, last week, and the two sides are implementing the settlement reached between the two counties. The two ministers agreed to implement the important consensus reached between the top leaders and promote stable relations between the two countries, the spokesman said.
Voicing concern over recruitment of educated Kashmiri youths into terror outfits, a top army commander has said that eyes cannot be shut to the "tragedy" that "alienation and lack of opportunities" was driving local youngsters towards the gun and the Centre and the state government need to introspect to address these issues.
