Bangladeshi author Nasreen returns to India

Posted 08 10 2008 3:14AM

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, on the run from death threats from Islamic militants, has returned to India to renew her visa, a rights activist said Saturday.

"Taslima's six-month visa to stay in India will expire on August 17," Sujato Bhadra, a human rights activist close to the writer, told AFP.

The writer returned to India on Friday, Bhadra said.

"She has come from Sweden after she got the assurance from the Indian authorities that her visa would be extended. She will apply for the visa in a few days."

The controversial writer was forced to flee her adopted home in the West Bengal state capital of Kolkata in November after receiving death threats from radical Indian Muslims.

After several months in hiding under Indian government protection, Nasreen fled to Sweden in March, where she was offered a two-year safe haven in the town of Uppsala, including a monthly allowance and an apartment.

But Bhadra, who spoke to the author soon after her arrival in New Delhi Friday night, said the writer still hoped to return to Kolkata.

"She will stay in India and approach the authorities to return to her apartment in Kolkata," he said.

The author's publisher Sibani Mukherjee has said for now Nasreen is staying in a hidden location in the Indian capital New Delhi.

It is not known how long she will remain in India.

Nasreen has lived a peripatetic life since first fleeing her native Bangladesh in 1994 to live in exile after extremist Muslims there accused her of blasphemy over her novel "Lajja" (Shame) which depicts the life of a Hindu family persecuted in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

The 45-year-old gynaecologist-turned-author holds Swedish citizenship but has been seeking permanent residence in India, which does not permit dual nationality.

New Delhi has stalled the request, fearful of a backlash from the country's 140-million-plus Muslims.