Bangladeshi writer back in India

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

Ms Nasreen says her heart is in Calcutta

Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen has returned to India to renew her visa which expires on Tuesday, officials say.

She flew in to Delhi from a European capital and was whisked off to an undisclosed location, they said.

Ms Nasreen was forced to leave Calcutta last November after angry protests by Muslims. She spent four months in Delhi before moving to Sweden.

She fled her native Bangladesh in 1994 when her book attracted death threats.

Riots

Ms Nasreen told some journalists by e-mail that she was keen to return to Calcutta to "gather her personal belongings, books and pet cats".

"I have to be in Delhi for renewing my Indian visa, but my heart is in Calcutta," Ms Nasreen said in her e-mail.

But the West Bengal state government is not willing to let her return to Calcutta now.

"We have to assess the situation because her coming back may provoke violence again," said a senior police official in the state capital.

He said the Indian federal government had asked for the West Bengal government's opinion on whether Ms Nasreen could be allowed to go to Calcutta, at least for a few days.

After spending several years in Sweden, she moved to Calcutta, an Indian city close to Bangladesh where her mother tongue of Bengali is spoken.

She was moved to Delhi last November after Muslim groups in Calcutta staged violent protests, accusing her of having insulted Islam.

Property was damaged in the riots and at least 43 people hurt.

Row

Ms Nasreen rose to prominence in 1993 after her first book, entitled Lajja, or Shame, angered some of Bangladesh's Muslims.

The book argued that Bangladeshis had mistreated the country's Hindu minority.

A more recent novel by Ms Nasreen, Dwikhondito or Split in Two, was accused by some Muslim groups of causing offence to Islam.

She was also accused of calling for changes to be made to the Koran to give women more rights.

Ms Nasreen has vehemently denied making such remarks.