New Delhi: Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen on Tuesday denied writing an article for a Kannada newspaper which has led to violent protests in Shimoga and Hassan towns and said there has been a "deliberate attempt to malign" her.

Nasreen said in a statement that she had never written an article for the Kannada Prabha newspaper in Karnataka. "The incident that occurred in Karnataka on Monday shocked me. I learned that it was provoked by an article written by me that appeared in a Karnataka newspaper. But I have never written any article for any Karnataka newspaper in my life," she said.


"The appearance of the article is atrocious. In any of my writings I have never mentioned that Prophet Muhammad was against burkha. Therefore this is a distorted story," Nasreen said.

"I suspect that it is a deliberate attempt to malign me and to misuse my writings to create disturbance in the society. I wish peace will prevail."

Kannada Prabha claims the article was reproduced from a book written by Nasreen and printed in its Sunday supplement on February 28.

The violence in Shimoga, the home town of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, left two persons dead, one of them in police firing on Sunday.

Nasreen, who is living at an undisclosed destination after returning to India last month, had her visa extended recently by six months till August this year.

Curfew continued in Shimoga town as did prohibitory orders banning crowds in Hassan, police said on Tuesday, a day after two people were killed following protests against an article attributed to Nasreen.

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