Taslima

Kolkata: Controversial Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on Wednesday left India to an unknown destination and has reached London, as she voiced her bitterness against the Indian government accusing it of being no better than "religious fundamentalists."

Sify exclusive: Goodbye Taslima, shame on India | Also read: 'I have to escape from this death chamber'

Talking to PTI from Heathrow Airport before taking a connecting flight after she left New Delhi on Wednesday morning on a British Airways flight, the 46-year-old author refused to disclose where she was heading to saying she did not want to "compromise" on her security.

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"If I disclose my destination my security will be compromised. My face has now become recognisable and I could be target of religious fundamentalists," she said.

Taslima, whose Indian visa was extended for further six months in February 2008, alleged her rights were infringed in the last four months when she was brought to Delhi after being hounded out from Kolkata.

Taslima said she will not hesitate to discuss what she said the traumatic experience she allegedly went through during various international seminars lined up in Europe in the next few months.

"I was put under tremendous stress but I could not speak out as I was under their (government) surveillance and could be harassed by them," she said in a choked voice from London. "The (Indian) government is no better than religious fundamentalists," she said.

Nasreen said she used to call the government safe house in Delhi where she was put up as the "torture chamber".

"I gradually came to realise that it was the chamber of death instead," Taslima said, adding she was forced to leave India because of "extreme stress" that she went through the last four months.

Nasreen said she hopes to return to Kolkata after the scheduled Panchayat elections in West Bengal in May 2008.

Taslima has lived in many countries in exile including France, Sweden and India since 1994. During her stay in India in the last five years, she has periodically travelled abroad with the last trip being in November 2007.

Taslima said the Indian government by putting her in "solitary confinement" in Delhi has indirectly highlighted her "plight and increasingly made her a target of a handful of fundamentalists."

The dissident author said she was suffering from two incurable diseases – a cardiac ailment and retinopathy – for being denied proper medical treatment and she feared she may suffer from permanent blindness.

Taslima said she was not allowed to see a specialist for "security reasons and not allowed to see a doctor even when her blood pressure was fluctuating uncontrollably because of the stress put on me by the government."

"Throughout my life I stood for the underprivileged but the government of the country which I consider as my home has infringed on my rights as a human being," a bitter Tasliam said.

Describing her four-month stay in a secluded house in Delhi as a nightmare, Taslima replied in the affirmative when asked whether she would pen down her experiences.

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