LUCKNOW, Feb 23: A hardline Hindu group has offered an 11.5-million-dollar reward for the murder of M.F. Husain, India’s best-known artist, after he painted revered Hindu godesses in the nude.

The statement on Wednesday by the Hindu Personal Law Board comes after a reward for the same amount was posted by an Indian Muslim politician for the beheading of any of the artists who drew the anti-Islam cartoons.

Husain pulled his painting depicting ‘Mother India’ as a naked woman from an auction after protests by rightwing Hindu nationalists.

Hindu outfits regularly target the 90-year-old Husain for drawing their gods and godesses in the nude. Husain is also a well-known filmmaker whose first feature in 1967 won a Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival.

“Anyone who kills Husain for making obscene paintings of goddess Sarswati and Bharat Mata (Mother India), (and) the Danish cartoonist ... will be given 51 crore rupees (11.5 million dollars) in cash,” the board said in a statement.—AFP