Six-month visa extension for Taslima Nasreen

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) Accepting the request of exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, the Indian Government has extended her visa for the next six months.

Ms Nasreen, whose visa was to expire on February 17, can now stay till August 17, 2007. With this extension, Ms Nasreen, who is staying in Kolkata, would hold an Indian visa for two years.

The writer, who was exiled from Bangladesh following a fatwa against her for her book 'Lajja', had initially taken an Indian Visa for one year as a Swedish National of Bangladeshi origin on August 18, 2005 from the Indian mission in Sweden. The visa was earlier also extended for six months.

The visa extension has been given following Ms Nasreen's request to the Home Ministry's Foreign Regional Registration Office. The Ministry gave the visa as there was no opposition from any of the agencies were were supposed to give their reports to the Home Ministry on such requests.

Ms Nasreen has expressed her wish for citizenship of India which requires seven years stay in the country.

She has been living in exile for 12 years. She had to move to Sweden after she invoked the ire of fundamentalists in Bangladesh with her book 'Lajja' in 1993 in which she had recounted the torture of the minority Hindu community in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

Besides ''Lajja'', Nasreen's four autobiographical books are also banned in Bangladesh as the government claims that her books contain anti-Islamic views.

In November, 2003, the West Bengal government banned the sale, distribution and collection of her book Dwikhandito, but it was later lifted by the Calcutta High Court in September 2004.

UNI