In the backdrop of detention of two Indians in connection with the failed terror plots in the UK, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that labeling any particular country, religion or community as “terrorists” should be avoided.

Dr Singh stated, “I will not come to hasty conclusion on Indian links with terrorism. I am against labeling any country with terrorism. Terrorists are terrorists, there can’t be any Indian terrorist or a Pakistani terrorist”. He was interacting with a group of women journalists here.

However, he also made it clear that his government would cooperate with the British authorities in investigations and said that he had already spoken to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday and assured him of all possible help.

Warning against dubbing anybody or any country a terrorist, he said, branding any community or religion as terrorists would create “new sets of grievances”.

He added, “it is wrong to label any community or country. We have to look for solutions. We should not fix labels like Muslims or non-Muslims. It won't help us in understanding the situation or dealing with it. It is very stereotype to classify a person”. The Prime Minister suggested that even if any one Indian is suspected of terror linkages, all Indians could not be dubbed as terrorists. Dr Singh observed that there were misguided youth in any society and this was not any community specific. “As a Sikh, I understand the trauma of being labelled”. The comments came in the backdrop of two doctors hailing from Bangalore being held in connection with the UK terror plot.