The United States on Sunday said it would not hesitate to "act alone" when necessary against terror networks in Pakistan, PTI reported. Washington's Acting Under-Secretary on Countering the Financing of Terrorism, Adam Szubin, was addressing a gathering at the Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Szubin also said that Islamabad continues to be a "critical counter-terrorism partner" in many ways.

The acting under-secretary said the United States of America continues to urge its partners in Pakistan to "go after all terrorist networks" within its territory and expressed willingness to help them. He said, "But there should be no doubt that while we remain committed to working with Pakistan to confront ongoing terrorist financing and operations, the US will not hesitate to act alone, when necessary, to disrupt and destroy these networks."

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Szubin said, "The problem is that there are forces within the Pakistani government — specifically in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI — that refuse to take similar steps against all the terrorist groups active in Pakistan, tolerating some groups — or even worse."

While acknowledging that Pakistan has been a victim of terror attacks itself and that Islamabad has countered "terrorist safe havens" in north Pakistan, Szubin said a lot more was needed to surpress the Haqqani network. He said the ISI support of terrorist organisations continues. Pakistan continues to claim it is suppressing terror networks within its borders.

On October 15, the United States urged Pakistan to de-legitimise all terrorist groups operating on its soil. Commenting on India's surgical strikes against "terror launchpads" along the Line of Control, the White House, on October 13, empathised with India’s need to respond to the September 18 Uri attack.