Taslima flies off, slams Indian Govt

“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 last month, alleged her human rights were violated in the last four months when she was brought to Delhi.

Taslima said she would not hesitate to discuss what she said was 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 surveillance and could be harassed by them,” she said in a choked voice from the British capital. “The Government is no better than religious fundamentalists,” she said. Taslima 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”.

The writer claimed she was finally seen by a doctor chosen by the Government. Just after having his prescribed medicine “drug poisoning started”, she alleged. “I fainted and I was admitted to a government hospital. Life-saving drugs saved my life,” she said.

Taslima said even though the Government constantly pressured her “mentally” to leave the country she refused to budge. Taslima said she had sent letters to the Prime Minister, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and CPI-M stalwart Jyoti Basu requesting that she be allowed to live in Kolkata, but she had never received any answer from them.