The foiled terrorist attacks in Britain last month have prompted anxiety and soul searching in India, a country whose economy relies heavily on its citizens' ability to work overseas.

Some of those arrested in connection with the thwarted bombings in London and Glasgow are Muslims from India. It is the first time since 1985, when a bomb downed Air India Flight 182 near the coast of Ireland, that Indian citizens have been implicated in a major international terrorist incident.

The revelations have prompted fears that Indian professionals, Muslim or otherwise, will face increasing difficulty finding employment overseas.

Concerns that relatives already working abroad will face a backlash have also been heightened.

Some Indians remember that the first hate crime victim in the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh filling station owner in Arizona shot to death by a man who apparently saw Sodhi's turban as a symbol of terrorism and anti-American hatred.

A pledge by Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain last week to review policies for screening foreign doctors was met with a plea from the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, not to single out citizens of any country for scrutiny.

"A terrorist is a terrorist and has no religion or community," Singh said he told Brown. [Link]

When Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced more rigorous background checks on foreign doctors applying for visas to work in Britain, panic spread through India's medical community, whose highly skilled professionals have always found it easy to work and study abroad.

The prime minister's announcement this week followed the disclosure that, among the medical professionals being held in connection with the failed bombings in Britain, three are from a single family in Bangalore. It was the first time that Indian Muslims have been accused of being linked to a possible al-Qaeda plot.

In emotional television broadcasts, Indian political and medical leaders said they worried that it would be harder to get visas to Britain and that Indian professionals living abroad would face racial profiling.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, displaying rare emotion while speaking with journalists Thursday in New Delhi, said that he had spoken with Brown on Wednesday evening. Singh said he told Brown that he was "against all labeling of terrorism by nationality." Singh also said: "A terrorist is a terrorist and has no religion or community. As a Sikh I know what it's like to be called a Sikh terrorist." [Link]