Exiled Bangladesh-born author Taslima Nasreen returned to Kolkata on Friday for the first time in nearly 19 years ahead of a literary event, PTI reported.

Nasreen arrived at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport and told reporters: “I'm feeling very good to be back”.

The visit marks her first return to Kolkata since November 2007, when she was forced to leave the city after some Muslim fundamentalists claimed that her autobiographical book Dwikhandito had hurt their religious sentiments.

As protests escalated and the Army was deployed to restore order in parts of Kolkata, the then Left Front government led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asked Nasreen to leave the city.

Nasreen has lived in exile since fleeing Bangladesh in 1994 after receiving death threats over her for her writings, particularly Lajja, her novel examining the persecution of Bangladesh’s Hindu minority in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition in Ayodhya.

She had initially settled in Kolkata in 2004, where she spent three years and described the city as her second home before being asked to leave during the unrest in 2007.

She is scheduled to attend an anti-fundamentalism literary programme at Rabindra Sadan on Saturday, where she is expected to recite poetry, PTI reported.

According to organisers, the event is intended to celebrate her “lifelong opposition to religious fundamentalism and reaffirm the principle of freedom of expression rather than serve as a political platform”.

Ahead of her visit, Nasreen said she felt she was returning to her own country because “Bengal has never been divided in my heart by a border or a barbed-wire fence”.

Nasreen thanked the organisers and the West Bengal government for facilitating her visit and providing security.

The programme she is due to attend has acquired political significance on account of the Bharatiya Janata Party having formed the government in West Bengal. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and author Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay are expected to attend the event.

However, Nasreen has rejected suggestions that the BJP arranged her return and said she had been invited by an organisation called Secular Mission, headed by Osman Gani Mallik.

She said the state government was only providing security, which she described as a “normal administrative responsibility”.

In a subsequent post, Nasreen said the invitation from the Secular Mission had provided the occasion for her visit, but it was the West Bengal government’s security arrangements that had made the__ trip possible__.

She added that she required protection because “Islamist militants” had threatened to kill her.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

Also read: Taslima Nasrin is returning to Kolkata. But will Bangladesh ever end her exile?

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