Srinagar, Sept. 7: The chief of the army's Northern Command today said Indian soldiers could cross the Line of Control whenever needed to target militant launch pads across the border, the tough talk coinciding with a surge in infiltration bids this year.

"When we want to, we will be able to breach and go across and strike when we need," Lt Gen. Devraj Anbu said.

The northern army commander asserted that the cross-LoC surgical strikes last September were aimed at driving home the point that the line could be breached.

"That was the subtle message we wanted to convey and we did it," he told reporters in Jammu.

Army sources said there had been no let-up in infiltration bids by militants despite the surgical strikes on "terrorist launch pads" that had followed the September 18 killings of Indian soldiers in Uri.

Anbu said the situation on the LoC was under control and Indian troops had moral ascendancy.

"We are very firm in dealing with any infiltration or any act which abets infiltration from the other side. There is no question that anybody can take things lightly and try infiltrating across the LoC," he said.

The defence ministry has put the number of infiltration bids in the first seven months of this year at 285, compared with 364 last year. Most of these bids have been foiled.

The Multi Agency Centre for intelligence gathering says 75 militants succeeded in sneaking in across the border over the past eight months. The army says the figure is between 45 and 50.

Anbu said the number of militant camps and launch pads had gone up compared with previous years and 475 militants were waiting to sneak into the Indian side, although a "robust" counter-insurgency grid was thwarting most of the bids.

"Those camps have not decreased. Last year the number of attempts (to infiltrate) was relatively less compared with this year. While there may be attempts... (we) have prevented them from entering (into Jammu and Kashmir). We have been foiling them at the LoC," he said.

"A sort of deterrence has been created so that they (the militants) are not able to enter. While the attempts have been more, we are able to prevent them from infiltrating our borders, whether in the Valley or the Jammu region."

Anbu ruled out a Doklam-like situation developing in Ladakh, saying there was no major issue in eastern Ladakh. "We have a very good mechanism in place, right from the lowest to the highest level," he said.

Indian and Chinese troops had till recently been locked in a tense standoff at the Doklam plateau at the tri-junction of their border with Bhutan.

While the Doklam impasse was still on, Indian and Chinese troopers got involved in a scuffle in Ladakh on August 15.