Date:20/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/20/stories/2008032060961200.htm

National

I was not allowed to see any doctor: Taslima Nasreen

Special Correspondent

Kolkata: Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen, in an e-mail to this correspondent on Tuesday night, says that during her confinement in New Delhi she was not allowed to see any doctor for “security reasons.” After several requests, she was taken to a quack, “who could, unsurprisingly, do nothing at all.” Later, she was admitted to a hospital.

The e-mail says:

“The doctors told me that I needed to spend two or three weeks in the hospital but the officials whisked me away from the critical care unit after just three days and took me directly to meet the Minister for External Affairs. The Minister asked me to leave the country, the shock of which made my blood pressure shoot up to 220/120.

“It has been nearly eight months that I have been living under virtual house arrest, in a prison without facilities. This has upset me a great deal as I left Europe to relocate to India; to make India my permanent home.”