The Hindu : Front Page : Manmohan speaks to Brown

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Friday, Jul 06, 2007
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Manmohan speaks to Brown

Gargi Parsai

Don’t dub any country or community terrorist
Terrorists have no particular religion

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and offered assistance in the investigation of the terror car attack at Glasgow airport in which two Indian doctors hailing from Bangalore are suspected to be involved.

Disclosing this at an interaction with women journalists here on Thursday, Dr. Singh said, “We are in touch with the U.K. Government. I have spoken to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and assured him of all possible help.”

He, however, cautioned against dubbing any country or community as terrorists. “Terrorists are terrorists. They have no particular religion or community. Labels are best avoided because if you do that you create a new set of grievances.”

Replying to a question on the concern in India about the suspected involvement of Indians in the failed terror attacks in Glasgow and London, Dr. Singh said every effort should be made to ensure that terrorist elements did not take root in the country.

On a question about the fear psychosis in the Indian diaspora in the U.K. following the detention of the two doctors, Mohammad Haneef and Sabeel Ahmed, the Prime Minister said misguided terrorist elements could be in any country.

“If some Indians are suspected, the world has to understand that India cannot be labelled. I, as a Sikh, have seen the trauma of labelling any community or country (as a terrorist)… It would not help us to understand the situation or deal with it. As a nation India stands with all those who want to wipe out the scourge of terrorism.”

A news agency reported the Prime Minister as saying that he had a sleepless night after he saw Dr. Haneef’s mother and sister speaking on television.

He said Foreign Secretary Shankar Menon and National Security Adviser M.K. Narayan would visit Washington this month for talks on the nuclear deal.

“Nuclear apartheid”

Describing the deal as an “effort to break out of the nuclear apartheid,” the Prime Minister said there were issues that needed to be sorted out.

“Whether we are successful or not we cannot say.”

Asked whether Pakistan’s pre-occupation with the developments in Lal Masjid would impact the Indo-Pak. talks, the Prime Minister admitted that the dialogue process may slow down, “not because of us but because of the situation in Pakistan.”

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