Bangladeshi writer-in-exile Taslima Nasreen has criticised the Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government for its “inactivity and failure to bring to book” the murderers of four bloggers.
Vented their frustration over the recent slaying of four Bangladeshi bloggers, Taslima said: “The Sheikh Hasina government was silent and the prime minister has not taken any action against the killers.”
“In fact, they work hand in hand with the extremists.”
In an interview to IANS, Taslima, who was forced to leave Bangladesh in 1994 when extremists threatened to kill her for criticising Islam, predicted that Bangladesh was soon going to be another Pakistan as many ruling party leaders are religious extremists.
Referring to the killings of four Bangladeshi bloggers this year, she said:"The secular bloggers Avijit, Ananta, Babu and Neel were killed in Bangladesh because they spoke against religion and they were atheists.”
She said: “The freethinkers and atheists are already fleeing the country. There is no democracy and there are many Islamic fundamentalists in the government and in the ruling party.”
Maintaining that Islamic fundamentalism was a bigger threat, Nasrin blamed Islam for the violence. "Islam tells people to kill non-believers. However, Hindu religious texts like the (Bhagwad) Gita call for peace," she said.
Read more: Taslima: Don’t call me Muslim, I am an atheist
The author, who created much controversy by her writings, has also observed that Indian fanatics are taking a cue from Bangladeshi extremists.
Drawing parallels between the brutal killings of a number of bloggers in Bangladesh and the murder of Karnataka writer and rationalist MM Kalburgi, she said: “Bangladeshi extremists kill writers who criticise religion. Indian extremists do the same."
She questioned that whether the “Indian extremists are learning from Bangladeshi extremists?”
The murder of Kalburgi showed the growing intolerance of religious fanatics in both India and Bangladesh, said Taslima. “I am also concerned about the earlier killings of the Indian rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare.”
Related story: Fourth blogger killed since February
"I was disturbed when I read about the killings of rationalists Dabholkar and Pansare, even if I don't know them personally. I live in India and I found it much safer than Bangladesh. I hope the Indian government will take action against the murderers. Let's have free speech in the subcontinent," she said.
"Is there no freedom of expression in India? It is supposed to be the largest democratic country and a secular one. In that case, why are rationalists being killed," asked Nasrin.
Taslima took shelter in Kolkata in 2004 after she fled Bangladesh in 1994. However, she had to leave the country after protests in 2007.
She got permission to live in Delhi in 2011.
Last week, the Indian government extended the visa for her stay in India for another year.
