E/CN.4/1995/91 page 19 The Muslim extremists were reportedly also responsible for serious attacks on non-Muslim religious minorities, including murders, abductions, rape, looting, extortion and destruction of property, and threats to make them leave the country. It was alleged that a policy of discrimination was being used against those minorities, in particular with regard to public employment. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that the writer, Mrs. Taslima Nasrin had been accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death in October 1993 by a group known as the "Council of the soldiers of Islam" from the north-eastern town of Sylhet. Mrs. Nasrin is said to have received serious threats on account of her novel Lajjya (Shame) which depicts the situation of a Hindu family forced by Muslim neighbours to leave Bangladesh following the destruction of the Babri Mosque in India. The extremist group has allegedly offered $1,250 for the killing of the writer and her work is reported to have been officially banned by the authorities. Mrs. Nasrin had already allegedly received death threats from the ’Council of the soldiers of Islam’ on 23 September 1993 and reportedly requested protection from the Khaka police and the authorities. Since she was unable to obtain satisfaction, she is said to have appealed on 6 October 1993 to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, who granted her a protection order. According to information received, in May 1994 a Muslim dignitary, Moulana Amini, issued a second fatwa against Mrs. Nasrin, accusing her of having stated in an interview published in the Indian newspaper The Statesman of 9 May that the Koran should be revised completely with respect to women’s rights. Moulana Amini reportedly declared that the writer’s statement was even more ’filthy’ than that of Salman Rushdie in The Satanic Verses. He is also said to have demanded the arrest and execution of Mrs. Nasrin. Azharul Islman, the leader of an Islamic political party, is also said to have accused the author of being ’an apostate appointed by the imperialist forces to vilify Islam’. At least 5,000 members of the Jamaiat Islamic party are reported to have demonstrated in Dhaka with banners demanding that all blasphemers of Islam should be hanged. The party leaders allegedly threatened the authorities with causing disturbances if Mrs. Nasrin were not arrested. Mrs. Nasrin is reported to have stated that her remarks had been incorrectly reported, and to have written to the Indian newspaper The Statesman on 11 May to confirm that she had not expressed the view that the Koran should be modified. Following publication of this confirmation and its reproduction in a number of newspapers in Bangladesh, Mrs. Nasrin reiterated her position to the newspapers on 18 May, explaining that, in referring to modification of the Shariah with a view to ensuring equality of the sexes, she had made no suggestion that the Koran should be revised. On 3 June at least 3,000 Muslim extremists are reported to have carried out a protest and called for the killing of Mrs. Nasrin. The