New Delhi: Thousands of Muslims protesting a newspaper article they say was critical of Islam clashed with police in southern India, leaving at least two people dead and dozens injured, police said Tuesday.

One person was killed by police gunfire and another succumbed to injuries caused by rocks thrown by the protesters during Monday’s gathering in Shimoga, a town in Karnataka state, said Vinod Kumar, a police officer.

Nearly 3,000 Muslims took to the streets after a local daily published an article it said was written by controversial Bangladesh writer Taslima Nasrin challenging the Islamic tradition of wearing veils as an infringement on women’s freedom.

Police fired at the protesters and used bamboo sticks to disperse them, he said.

Authorities imposed a curfew in the town after protesters burned some shops and damaged dozens of vehicles. The area is about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) southwest of New Delhi.

Similar protests Monday were reported in Hassan, another town in Karnataka state.

On Tuesday, The Press Trust of India news agency quoted Nasrin as saying she had never written an article for Kannada Prabha newspaper.
“I suspect that it is a deliberate attempt to malign me and to misuse my writings to create disturbance in the society,” the PTI quoted her as saying.

Nasrin arrived in India last month and got her visa extended until August.

Kannada Prabha said that contents of the article were taken from a book written by Nasrin, according to the CNN-IBN television news channel.

Nasrin left Bangladesh in 1994 after Islamic extremists accused her of insulting Islam in her writings and threatened to kill her. She has lived in exile since then, mostly in Sweden, France and India.

The death threats came after an Indian newspaper quoted her as saying changes must be made to the Islamic holy book, the Quran, to give women more rights.

She has vehemently denied making the comments but still faces threats against her life from Islamic hard-liners in Bangladesh, where one of her books is banned.

- AP