The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen arrived in Europe on Wednesday after leaving India for security reasons, the Swedish PEN Club source reported.

"She has landed in Europe. I don't want to say where. But she feels safe and doctors will examine her. She doesn't want to say anything about her plan for the time being," the PEN Club spokesmen said.

However, the publisher and supporters of Taslima Nasreen accused the Indian Government of forcing her out of the country because of fears of a Muslim backlash.

Nasreen left mainly Hindu but officially secular India on Wednesday after accusing the Indian Government of forcing her to quit the country.

"The government is no better than religious fundamentalists," she said.

She said the Government refused her timely medical treatment and called the safe house where she was kept under federal protection a "chamber of death."

"It beggars the description meted out to her and was inhuman. She was suffering in severe hypertension and as a result severe heart and eye problems," said Shivani Mukherji, publisher of Nasreen's books in India.

"It's shameful for a so-called secular country to behave this way. They should have stood up to the people who opposed her," she said.

According to PEN Club spokesman, Nasreen, who holds a Swedish passport and has been suffering from health complaints, would probably reveal her whereabouts at some point but "that will depend on a security assessment".

The writer was forced to flee Bangladesh in 1994 to live in exile, in Sweden among other countries, after radical Muslims accused her of blasphemy over her novel "Lajja" -- or "Shame" -- which depicts the life of a Hindu family persecuted by Muslims in Bangladesh.

She has lived in exile since then, in Europe and the United States.