DHAKA(PTI) : In a massive show: of strength, Islamic fundamentalists threatened to launch a movement to oust the government of Begum Khalida Zia if it failed to arrest and punish fugitive feminist writer Taslima Nasreen within a week.

Addressing a Mammoth rally rounding off a long march by an estimated 200,000 people, Maulana Aziz Ul Haq, chairman of United Action Council, a collection of 13 Islamic groups which organized the march, announced the threat even as Taslima remained in hiding for nearly two months now.

Earlier a long march by thou- sands of fundamentalists from different parts of Bangladesh poured into Dhaka to press the demand for death for Taslima and two other noted intellectuals of the country – poet Shamus-Ul-Rehman and former Dhaka University Professor Mohd Shan, who they alleged were apostle’s.

“Taslima Beware,” “We are Muslims’, were some of the slogans shouted by the fundamentalists who converged at the sprawling Manik Main Avenue adjacent to Parliament building, the venue of the rally,

Maulana Hag, who led an “abortive march to Ayodhya” of about 50,000 fundamentalists in January 1993 after the Ayodhya incident, also demanded enactment of blasphemy law saying it would stop the alleged anti-Islamic activities in the country.

 But the Bangladesh’s attomey  general Aminul Huq firmly opposed the enactment of a new blasphemy law saying such a move would “hurl us back into dark ages.”

Meanwhile in New Delhi, German foreign minister Dr. Klaus Kinkel last week said the Bangladesh fugitive writer Taslima Nasreen was welcome to seck refuge in any of the 16 countries of the European Union (EU).

“Taslima is welcome to all the 16 countries where she could enter freely,” Dr. Kinkel told a news conference here at the end of his official visit.

Asked whether plans of a safe passage are being worked out for ‘Taslin4, Dr. Kinkel said “It is in the interest of Taslima not to disclose what we (EU) have decided to do.”

Germany, which is the current resident of EU, has requested the Bangladesh government to take necessary steps to ensure that Taslima could move freely within her country, Dr. Kinkel said.

 Dr. Kinkel said the EU foreign ministers had discussed at length the possibilities of bailing out Taslima from the present crisis she is facing in her own country.

 The feminist writer went into hiding last month after Bangladesh government issued an arrest warrant for making controversial remarks about Quoran in an interview to a Calcutta English daily, which she later denied.

 Taslima’s last novel “Lajja”’ (Shame) was banned in Bangladesh after an uproar by Muslim fundamentalists. The novel deals with the plight of a Hindu family in riot-hit Bangladesh in the wake of demolition of a Mosque in India.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 5, 1994