LONDON, July 28: Pakistan’s envoy in London Dr Maleeha Lodhi has said the acts of a few individuals allegedly involved in the London bombings should not be used to stigmatize the Muslim community in Britain.

In an interview with CNN on the situation following 7/7, Dr Maleeha urged the British leadership to reassure the Muslim community in these difficult times.

“I think it is very important to hear what Prime Minister Tony Blair and other British authorities have been saying, i.e., the terrorist acts have nothing to do with Islam or the Muslim community so that the acts of just a few individuals does not stigmatize an entire community.”

Dr Maleeha has been interacting with the mainstream British media to put across her country’s viewpoint on the war on terror in which Pakistan is playing a key role.

Answering a question on Afghanistan and Al Qaeda, she said that one of the points that President General Pervez Musharraf made in his recent nation-wide address was that fighting terrorism was not the job of Pakistan alone.

She said Pakistan had already arrested 700 terrorists and had deployed over 70,000 of its law enforcement, paramilitary and regular forces on a long and porous border with Afghanistan.

On the other hand, the total number of forces within Afghanistan was about 20,000, adding that proper policing on the border was needed for successful interdiction of suspected terrorists.

She said most of the concerns of the Muslim community in Britain revolved around feelings of apprehension as the vast maj-ority or 99.99 per cent of response to the bombings was “to condemn the atrocity and to say very loudly that this action, this act was abhorrent to Islam.”