NEW DELHI: The Indo-Pak dialogue process has slowed down because of the "situation" in Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here today as he noted that the dangers of fundamentalism were now being realized in that country, in an apparent reference to the Lal Masjid episode.

"The dialogue has slowed down, not because of us, but because of the situation in Pakistan," he told a group of women journalists. When referred to the Lal Masjid episode involving heavy exchange of fire between radical clerics and security forces in the heart of Islamabad since Tuesday, Singh said "fundamentalism is dangerous to any society" .

"Pakistan is seeing terrorism for the first time. What is happening in Pakistan, thinking people have realized fundamentalism is perverse and dangerous to society", he said. Describing terrorism as a "curse", Singh said "terrorism is a common enemy. It is a menace." "We are dealing with it. It is a difficult situation. I understand what is happening," he said.

Offering British Prime Minister Gordon Brown cooperation in anti-terror investigation in the context of Indian doctors' detention, Prime Minister had a word of caution against labelling any community or country merely on the basis of suspicion.

He cautioned against dubbing anybody or any country as a terrorist, saying if any community is targeted, it would create "new sets of grievances". "It is wrong to label any community or country.

We have to look for solutions," Singh told a group of women journalists disclosing to them that he had talked to Brown and offered to help "in dealing with this" (situation arising out of the detention of Indian doctors) "If a particular community is targeted, it will create a new set of grievances," the Prime Minister said.

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