Police imposed a curfew on Tuesday in a town in the southern Indian state of Karnataka after two people were killed in protests over an article by the exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen.

Police had opened fire Monday in Shimoga, about 270 kilometres (170 miles) west of Bangalore, as hundreds of Muslims demonstrated over the newspaper article, in which Nasreen argued against the practice of wearing the veil.

One person was shot dead, while another was killed in clashes that broke out when the demonstrators tried to force shopkeepers to close their businesses in support of their protest.

"A curfew has been imposed until Wednesday evening," Shimoga police chief S. Murugan told AFP by telephone.

"The situation is under control now, but it's still tense," Murugan said.

Around 15 people were injured in Monday's violence and Murugan said more than 50 had been arrested.

No stranger to violent reactions

Nasreen is no stranger to violent reactions to her work.

She was forced to flee Bangladesh in 1994 after radical Muslims accused her of blasphemy over her novel "Lajja" (Shame), in which a Hindu family is persecuted by Muslims.

She spent the next 10 years in western Europe and the United States before India granted her a temporary residential permit in 2004. She moved to Kolkata in the state of West Bengal, adjoining Bangladesh.

But seething resentment by Muslim hardliners at her presence in the city exploded into full-blown riots in November 2007, which resulted in the army being called out.

She went into hiding in New Delhi and was eventually forced to leave India in March 2008.

- AFP