Birthday gift to Taslima Nasrin, visa extended by one year

The government has extended the visa of controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin by another year from August this year, shifting from its earlier stand of asking her to leave the country and apply afresh to stay in the country.

The 47-year-old doctor-turned writer, who will be celebrating her birthday on August 25, is also trying for a permanent residency in the country. Her visa is valid till August 16 and has been extended by another year, official sources said.

Her application for granting a permanent residency in the country has been hanging in balance for years together.

Earlier, the government had said that Taslima's visa cannot be extended beyond August 16, 2010, as her travel document had been issued under the category (miscellaneous).

Taslima, a Swedish passport-holder, had sought visa under the miscellaneous category in 2005 and it has since been extended initially for a year and later for six months. The visa under this category cannot be extended beyond five years.

She had been conveyed that she should seek fresh visa from a third country after which she could visit India again, the sources said.

However, the writer community of the country and intellectuals from other parts of the world had made an appeal to the government for considering her case as a special one and extend her visa.

Taslima, who has been in and out of the country after she was dramatically bundled out of West Bengal in November 2007 in the wake of protests by radical Muslim groups, came from London in July and was immediately whisked away to a safe location.

The writer, who shot to fame with her controversial book Lajja in 1994, has been told that she could stay in some other country for a few days and later apply afresh for the visa under the same category, pending her request for a permanent residency in the country, the sources said.

Taslima had earlier expressed her desire to visit Kolkata but it was turned down on the ground that radical elements may try to harm her, the sources said.

Taslima had earlier left India on March 18, 2008, for Sweden after she was kept at an undisclosed place here for more than four months. She had not been allowed to see any visitor during the period and described her confinement as "a chamber of death".

Recipient of various awards, she was shifted from her Kolkata residence after violent protests in the eastern metropolis against her controversial book Dwikhondito (divided into two). Certain references in the book had earned the wrath of some Muslim organisations which demanded that she be asked to leave the Left-ruled state.

Taslima has lived in exile in many countries, including France, Sweden, the US and India, since leaving her home in Dhaka in a cloak of secrecy in 1994. During her stay in India in the last five years, she has periodically travelled abroad with the last trip being in August 2009.