New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS): Indian Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane said on Tuesday that Pakistan continues to embrace terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

"Pakistan continues to embrace terrorism. We have zero-tolerance for terror. We reserve our right to respond at a time and place of our own choosing and with precision. This is a clear message we have sent across," said General Naravane during an annual press conference in New Delhi.

He said that India has zero-tolerance for terror.

Talking about collusion, General Naravane said, "Pakistan and China together form a potent threat. There is an aspect of collusive threat that cannot be wished away."

He also said that there has been increasing cooperation between China and Pakistan in both military and non-military sectors. General Naravane stressed that India is prepared to deal with a two-front threat scenario.

Talking about local recruitments across Jammu & Kashmir, the Army Chief said the recruitments in various terror groups are still happening in Kashmir.

"We carry out successful counter terror operations in the valley but side by side recruitments do also happen in terror groups. We always try how we could stop recruitment," General Naravane said.

To stop local recruitment, the Indian Army is running various outreach programmes where the force tries to meet the youths who tend to fall into the trap of terror groups. "This is a continuous attempt we are making. Because of such attempts, there is a small decrease in recruitments every year. It does go up and down," said General Naravane, adding that they are hopeful that recruitments will eventually come down in the valley.

In the valley in 2017, the militant recruitment number was 127 followed by a big jump in 2018 when 219 locals joined terror groups. Last year, the number stood at 166.