Taslima gets additional security following Shahi Imam's Fatwa

Kolkata, June 25 (UNI) The West Bengal government has beefed up security of controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen following a ''fatwa'' on her by the Shahi Imam of the city's Tipu Sultan Mosque besides announcing a cash reward for anyone, who would blacken her face.

Charging Taslima with being ''anti-Islam'' and an agent of the ''American and Jewish'' lobby, Shahi Imam SMNR Barkati also demanded her immediate expulsion from India.

Questioning the source of her ''steady income'' even in a foreign land for such a long period, the Shahi Imam said her ''anti-Islamic'' stance could no longer be tolerated and he would reward anyone with a cash prize of Rs 50,000 for being able to blacken her face in public.

Meanwhile, the city police, in the wake of a fresh ''fatwa'' on the Bangladeshi author, had taken adequate steps to beef up her security round the clock.

Refusing to elaborate the exact measures, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Central), Ajay Ranade said, '' We are fully aware of the consequences of such a threat and have taken adequate steps to ensure her full protection from any fundamentalist force. '' However, apparently looking unperturbed to the latest threat, Taslima reiterated that though she believed in secularism, she was not at all anti-Islam at any point of time.

Incidentally, despite her repeated pleas the Bangladesh authorities had refused to allow her re-entry to the country for the past several years, forcing her to live in exile in several countries, including India, on an Europen Union passport.

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