Salman Rushdie was airlifted to the hospital where he underwent an emergency surgery.
New Delhi:
Author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and stomach at a literary event in New York, USA, on Friday. The 75-year-old author is on a ventilator and may have lost an eye. Police have identified his attacker.
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The author’s representative said Salman Rushdie suffered a severed nerve in one arm and liver damage, and may lose an eye. “Not good news,” Andrew Wylie, his agent, wrote in an email. “Salman will probably lose an eye; the nerves in his arm are severed; and his liver is stabbed and damaged.”
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New York State Police identified his attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, from New Jersey. The motive behind the attack is still unclear, officials said.
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Mr. Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed by Hadi Matar, who rushed onto the stage and attacked him. Henry Reese, the interviewer, also suffered a head injury in the attack.
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Photos and images circulating on social media showed several spectators rushing onto the stage and taking the suspect to the ground, before a soldier present at the event arrested him.
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A doctor present at the event provided medical care until the first responders arrived. Mr Rushdie was then airlifted to the hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery.
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The attack happened as Rushdie was about to give a speech at the Chautauqua Institute near New York City, which hosts art shows. There were about 2,500 people in the audience, who were later evacuated.
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the stabbing and praised Rushdie as “an individual who has spent decades telling the truth before power.” “We condemn all violence, and we want people to be able to feel[the]freedom to speak and write the truth,” she said.
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Mr. Rushdie made headlines with his second novel “Midnight Children” in 1981, which won international acclaim and the prestigious Booker Prize.
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A British citizen of Indian descent – living in the US for the past 20 years – Salman Rushdie has faced threats for decades over his 1988 book, The Satanic Verses. The novel was seen by some clerics as disrespectful to the Prophet Mohammed.
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A reward was placed on his head by top Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for calling for his assassination. He spent nearly a decade in hiding, moving several times and unable to tell his children where he lived. Mr Rushdie only began to escape his life after the Iranian government in 1998 said it would not enforce the ‘fatwa’ or that decree.
