The Hindu : Front Page : Police send Taslima back to Kolkata

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Friday, Aug 10, 2007
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Police send Taslima back to Kolkata

Staff Reporter

Bangladeshi writer thanks journalists, police for rescuing her

HYDERABAD: After being heckled and attacked by the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MLAs and their followers, the Bangladeshi novelist Taslima Nasreen was safely sent back to Kolkata by air. She has been living in the West Bengal capital ever since the Bangladesh Government refused to allow her return to the country.

The police, which got wind of the swift incidents at the Press Club, rushed to the place and whisked her away to the North Zone DCP’s office in Secunderabad under the escort of Saifabad Inspector K.V. Ram Narasimha Reddy.

A few minutes later, she was taken to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Begumpet.

Slogans raised

Meanwhile, policemen bundled the MIM MLAs and activists into vehicles and took them to the Punjagutta police station. The three MLAs - Syed Ahmed Pasha Qadri, Maozam Khan and Muqtada Asfar Khan - as well as their supporters continued to raise slogans against her even as they were being taken away. The party activists tried in vain to prevent the police from taking them away by squatting in the front of the Press Club. The novelist is said to have spent almost three hours in a restaurant on the airport premises.

She also had lunch with the policemen. Though a visibly shaken Ms. Nasreen initially refused to speak to the media, she relented after repeated requests: “I believe in democracy and freedom of expression. The minorities attacked me but I enjoy the support of the majority,” she said.

She thanked journalists and the police for rescuing her from the unruly mob. At about 4.30 p.m., she boarded an Air Deccan flight to Kolkata.

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