Nasreen indicted for blasphemy

DHAKA, JULY 10. A criminal court in Bangladesh has indicted the feminist writer-in-exile, Ms. Taslima Nasreen, on charges of blasphemeing Islam, judicial officials said today. The magistrate, Mr. Mohammad Shah Alam, indicted Ms. Nasreen in absentia. A cleric, Mr. Dabiruddin Azad, had filed a criminal case against Nasreen more than two years ago in the southern Bangladesh town of Gopalganj.

The writer was forced to leave the country for a second round of exile after she came under renewed threats from Islamic fundamentalists in January 1999. She had returned in September 1998 after four years of exile in Europe to stay with her mother who was suffering from cancer. She had to go into hiding soon after her arrival in Dhaka as radical groups went to the streets demanding blood.

Ms. Nasreen angered Muslim clerics in 1994 after she called for reforms in Koran.

- DPA

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