Taslima Nasreen wants freedom in India

NEW DELHI: Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, living in a secret hideaway after being threatened by Islamist groups, said she felt like a prisoner and appealed to the government of India to set her free. The controversial author was rushed out of her home in Kolkata, capital of the communist-ruled state of West Bengal, in November after violent protests by Muslim groups. She was first taken to Rajasthan and then moved to an undisclosed "safe house" in New Delhi, where she cannot have visitors and only has a mobile phone, a laptop and a television set to connect her to the outside world. "I have not committed any crime, so why have they locked me up?" she said, sounding virtually in tears in a telephone interview. She said Indian authorities extended her visa last week, but said she could not leave her house, which is guarded by police. "All the protests were staged in Kolkata, yet I have been locked up like a prisoner here and not allowed to step out," Nasreen told Reuters at the weekend. "I want to go back to my study in Kolkata and my pet cat." Leading Indian intellectuals, including Booker prize-winner Arundhati Roy, have criticised India's officially secular government for not doing more for Nasreen and in particular the communist leaders of West Bengal for not allowing her back. Continued... Leaders of West Bengal's Muslim community, who make up almost a third of the state's 80 million people, have threatened to withdraw electoral support from the left if Nasreen returns. She said this was populist politics. "The people who say they are fighting against me are only interested in gaining political popularity as most of them have never read my books," Nasreen said.