Taslima Nasreen gets visa extension

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New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry has extended the visa of controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen by six months.

The visa of the exiled writer was supposed to expire on February 17, but has been now extended up to August 17, 2007.

"I cannot go back to Bangladesh in the near future because whoever wins the elections - either of the two main political coalitions led by Sheikh Hasina or Khaleda Zia - would not want me there," Taslima had been quoted by agencies as saying before her visa got an extension.

She had applied to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office in December for a six-month extension, but is mainly interested in permanent resident status in India.

The author is presently living in exile in India after her book Lajja (Shame) recounted the torturing of Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

The book had so invoked the wrath of fundamentalists in the country that a fatwa was issued against her and she had to leave Dhaka and went to live in Sweden.

In fact she is presently staying in Kolkata on a Swedish passport.

Besides Lajja, Taslima Nasreen's four autobiographical books are banned in Bangladesh on grounds of containing anti-Islamic sentiments.

(With inputs from agencies)