Taslima wants adequate security after death threat

KOLKATA: A day after radical Muslim clerics issued a death threat to Taslima Nasreen, the exiled Bangladeshi writer on Saturday asked the government to provide her adequate security.

"I hope the government and the police here will provide adequate security to me," she said.

Addressing a rally at Esplanade on Friday after the Friday prayers at the nearby Tipu Sultan mosque, Majidulla Khan Farhad of Hyderabad-based Majlis Bachao Tehriq accused Taslima of 'defaming' Islam and announced 'unlimited financial reward' to anybody who would kill her.

Incidentally, Farhad was among those who had attacked the controversial writer at the Hyderabad Press Club last week.

Accusing the author of insulting Prophet Mohammad in her writings, Imam of Tipu Sultan mosque, Syed Nuroor Rehman Barkati said 'insult to the Prophet is an insult to God. When (painter) Maqbul Fida Hussain painted Hindu goddess in the nude, there was strong resentment. The same sentiment is at work here.'

Later, the clerics submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, demanding the writer's deportation. Similar memoranda was also sent to Union Home minister Shivraj Patil.

State Chief Secretary Amit Kiran Deb, however, refused to comment on the matter.