India extends Taslima Nasreen's visa by a year

Author Taslima Nasreen's Indian visa was extended yesterday for another year, effective from July 23, following an intervention of Home Minister Rajnath Singh based on the 52-year-old's request, said a home ministry official.

In her reaction, Taslima said she was very happy even though she was expecting her visa to be extended by more than one year.

Taslima, living in exile since she left Bangladesh in a cloak of secrecy in 1994 in the wake of threats by fundamentalist groups, has stayed in the US and Europe and in India since 2004. A citizen of Sweden, the writer had to leave Kolkata in 2007 following violent street protests by a section of Muslims against her works.