Injunction on selling of Taslima's book

A Dhaka court yesterday issued an interim injunction barring writer Taslima Nasreen, a publisher and a press owner from further printing, publishing, distributing and sellingKa, a novel blamed for defaming poet Syed Shamsul Haq.

The court also directed the deputy commissioner of Dhaka, inspector general of police and information and home secretaries to seize copies of the novel up for sale.

It served notices on the writer, publisher and owner of Impression Printing House, asking them to explain in 15 days from the date of receipt of the notices why a temporary injunction would not be issued against them.

Judge Golam Kibria of the Court of First Joint District Judge issued the orders upon a defamation suit Shamsul Haq filed against Taslima and six others on Sunday, claiming Tk 10 crore in compensation for what he said were defamatory remarks against him in the novel.

The plaint of Shamsul Haq says Taslima mentioned on page 66 of the novel that he had taken her and her sister to Comilla Shalban Bihar and stayed in the guesthouse of Comilla Bonunnayan Daftar.

"Shamsul Haq stayed in a separate room and told Taslima about his early life the next day on the way back to Dhaka," the plaint continues.

He quoted Taslima as writing on page 69 of the novel that she found him throwing up in the bathroom, as he was drunk during their stay in a guesthouse in Kaptai.

The novel reads: Taslima, now living in the US, was too scared to share the same room.

According to the complaint, Taslima wrote in Ka that he had an extramarital affair with his sister-in-law and he suffered heartbreak, when she married another person.

The plaintiff, describing such remarks as damaging to his fame, appealed to the court for seizure of all copies of the novel and measures to halt its further sale.

Barrister Ziaur Rahman Khan and advocate Monwar Hossain appeared for Shamsul Haq yesterday.