The Hindu : Front Page : Taslima blames it on Kolkata police

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2007
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Taslima blames it on Kolkata police

Marcus Dam

“They put pressure on me; I was driven out”

I was advised to go to Jaipur against my wishes
Hope of being able to return to Kolkata keeps me going

KOLKATA: The controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Tuesday held certain top officials of the Kolkata police responsible “for putting mental pressure” on her and finally getting her to leave the city on November 22.

Ms. Nasreen rejected the police contention that she had left on her own.

“I was under tremendous mental pressure for nearly three months while in Kolkata to leave the State for some time for reasons of my security. And then came the events of November 21,” she told The Hindu over telephone.

Ms. Nasreen, who left the city for Jaipur a day after demonstrations led by the All-India Minority Forum demanding that her visa be revoked turned violent, was shifted from the Rajasthan Guest House in Delhi late on Monday night to a “safe place,” where the Centre is taking care of her security.

While in Kolkata “there were suggestions that I go to certain other parts of the country and even abroad. But I kept refusing as I did not want to leave home,” Ms. Nasreen said. “All these months I was not even allowed to step outside my house.”

Attack in Hyderabad

Security had been tightened since she returned here from Hyderabad following an attack on her by activists of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen at a function held in that city on August 9 to mark the release of the Telugu translation of her book Sokhe.

On the remark by police authorities that she had left Kolkata of her own volition, Ms. Nasreen said: “I deny that flatly. I have been driven out of the State after withstanding three months of mental pressure from certain police officials. Finally I was advised to go to Jaipur at the instance of someone trusted to them [the police] and much against my wishes.”

Her being shunted from Jaipur to the national capital under heavy security cover and then to another undisclosed location late on Monday night has left Ms. Nasreen shaken. “You can well imagine the state of my mind,” she said.

“I keep hoping that I will be able to return to Kolkata, which is my home, at the earliest. That is all that keeps me going.”

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