BHUBANESWAR (Orissa): Writer-activist Arundhati Roy, who on Sunday faced the ire of hard-line Hindu groups here, refused to express regret over her recent statement on Kashmir.

The high-profile writer and activist kicked up a storm last month by making a statement at a seminar in Srinagar that Kashmir was never an integral part of India.

“I have never said anything which I have not thought about,” Ms Roy told reporters after attending a meeting on “cultural resistance to war on people in corporate interest”, organised by a magazine considered to be pro-left.

Standing by her statement on Kashmir, she said: “They (hard-line Hindu activists) have rights to protest and I have rights to speak and write.”

Ms Roy’s visit to the city and presence at the meeting sparked a scuffle as activists of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a “black flag demonstration” at the venue. They asked the writer to leave the state immediately after dubbing her as an “anti-national”.

At least five people were injured in a clash between the activists and the organisers of the meeting.

“We are opposing the visit of Roy in view of the objectionable statement she made recently on Kashmir. We have nothing against the meeting but she should go back,” ABVP’s state executive member Ajay Kumar Rout said.

He said the “saffron brigade” would stage similar protests wherever Ms Roy went during her visit here.

Heated argument between the two sides soon led to a clash in which sticks and stones were used leaving at least five people injured, police sources said. The situation was controlled after police swung into action dispersing the demonstrators. About eight of them were arrested, deputy commissioner of police H.K. Lal said.—Dawn/The Times of India News Service