Taslima Nasreen gets one-year visa, till August 2015

NEW DELHI: Controversial writer Taslima Nasreen, living in exile since 1994, has been given one-year visa by the Centre and allowed to stay in India till August 2015.

The 51-year-old writer was last month given two months temporary visa after the Home Ministry decided to initiate a verification process of her visa application.

"The writer's visa has been extended for one year, till August 2015," a Home Ministry official said today.

Taslima had met Home Minister Rajnath Singh on August 2 after India's decision to grant her 2-month visa. At that time, the Home Minister had assured her to consider her plea for a longer-term visa.

Nasreen had to leave Bangladesh in 1994 in the wake of death threat by fundamentalist outfits for her alleged anti-Islamic views.

Taslima is now a citizen of Sweden. She has been getting Indian visa on a continuous basis since 2004.

She had been living in exile since 1994 and has lived in the US, Europe and India in the last two decades. However, on many occasions she had expressed her wish to live in India permanently, especially in Kolkata.

The writer had to leave Kolkata in 2007 following violent street protests by a section of Muslims against her works.