Taslima Nasreen leaves for Delhi

Jaipur, Nov 23: Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen is now heading for Delhi by road after an overnight stay in Jaipur. According to reports, Nasreen is escorted by the Rajasthan police. Nasreen, who reached the Pink City on Thursday by an Indian Airlines flight, reportedly stayed at 'Hotel Shikha' near the Civil Secretariat under heavy security. The police had sealed the hotel entrance and thrown a security cordon around it and all vehicular traffic in the area had been diverted.

Nasreen was moved out of West Bengal after a violent protest on Wednesday by demonstrators under the banner of All India Minority Forum (AIMF). They are demanding the cancellation of her visa. The Army was called in and curfew was imposed in various parts of Kolkata following violent protests.

CPI (M) leader Biman Bose had suggested that Nasreen should be sent either to Jaipur or Gujarat in the wake of protests against her stay in Kolkata.

Reacting on Bose statement, the BJP Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, V K Malhotra, said it was totally wrong to ask her to leave, or even suggest that she should, just because a handful of 'fundamentalists" do not like what she says and writes. She has been living in exile for more than ten years now.

Since the 1990s, Nasreen has faced numerous threats from Islamic groups for her writings. Recently, she was attacked by activists of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) at a book release function in Hyderabad. ANI>