Kathmandu: Controversial Bangladeshi writer
Taslima Nasreen had to cancel her visit to Nepal to attend the
country`s first literature festival after her contentious
tweet generated negative buzz here.
"I am sad, but I had to cancel the flight as I did not
want any unpleasant incident to happen in Nepal," Nasreen, who
has been living in exile since 1994, wrote on micro-blogging
site Twitter yesterday.
Nasreen, 48, who currently resides in New Delhi, was to
arrive in Kathmandu on Saturday to attend the literature
festival, but she missed her flight at the Delhi Airport as
she forgot to bring her Swedish passport.
"My Nepali friends, I missed my flight to go to Kathmandu
today. I forgot to bring my passport as I didn`t consider
Nepal a foreign country!" she wrote on her Twitter page.
The comment offended many of her Nepali followers on the
micro-blogging site who ridiculed her lack of knowledge about
world geography and expressed anger over what they said was
her assumption that Nepal was a part of India.
The organisers of the four-day festival asked Nasreen to
cancel her trip as they were unable to guarantee her safety in
the wake of possible protests by some Nepalese activists.
"As people protested through Twitter regarding her views,
she decided to cancel the flight on our advice," Director of
the Nepal Literary Festival Ajit Baral said.
"We advised Nasreen not to visit Nepal at this moment as
we could not provide her safety in the wake of possible
protests by some Nepalese activists," Baral said.
"Some people were even planning to show black flag upon
her arrival here," he said.
Nasreen was to speak about her book `My Writing Life`
during the four-day literary festival that has drawn some 60
literary personalities from Nepal, India and abroad.
PTI
