"In a civilised society, you have a right to approve or disapprove of anything," he was quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI). Akhtar said that the fundamentalists were becoming "bolder and bolder by the day".
On Thursday lawmakers and members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party are reported to have attacked the author at the Hyderabad press club at the launch of a Telugu translation of one of her novels. In the assault the author is said to have been backed into a corner as people threw things at her. Nasreen described the attack as barbaric.
Many Muslims have accused the author of ridiculing Islam in her writing and she was forced to leave Bangladesh in 1994 after her writing led to calls for her execution. For the past two years she has lived in Calcutta and has applied for Indian citizenship. Critics say that she called for the Koran to be changed to give women more rights, however she denied that she ever made such a statement.
Delhi Minorities Commission chairperson Kamal Farooqui also condemned Thursday's assault particularly because three lawmakers were involved. However he also said that the government should ensure that Nasreen was not allowed to do anything that would hurt the sensibilities of Muslims. "The government should immediately cancel her visa and make her go out of the country," he was quoted as saying in the PTI report. "She should realise that this is not Bangladesh or Pakistan, but India where the sentiments of all communities are respected".