Salman Rushdie remains intubated, at risk of losing the sight in one eye, and has suffered severe nerve damage in one hand and liver.
Internationally renowned author of Indian origin, Salman Rushdie, is fighting to stay alive after the murderous attack he received yesterday in New York, shortly before he was to deliver his speech at an event.
In a written statement released by Andrew Wiley, the author’s literary agent, Salman Rushdie remains intubated, at risk of losing sight in one eye, and has suffered severe nerve damage to one hand and liver.
“The news is not good. “Salman will probably lose the sight in one eye; the nerves in his hand were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” Mr Wiley said in a statement.
The perpetrator of the attack was arrested and identified
Late last night (Greece time), the police announced that the perpetrator of the attack against the writer is 24-year-old Hadi Mattar, a resident of New Jersey.
According to the police report, the assailant rushed onto the stage as Rushdie was about to deliver a speech at a Chotokwa Foundation event and stabbed the 75-year-old author in the neck, who collapsed to the floor. The assailant was stopped by bystanders, before he was arrested by the police.
The motive for the attack is not known, while the New York police said there were no indications of possible threats before the event.
Salman Rushdie was airlifted to the hospital and underwent hours-long surgery.
Rushdie’s much-discussed book The Satanic Verses
The book “Satanic Verses” written by Salman Rushdie caused an uproar in several countries of the Muslim world in 1988 after it was deemed to have “blasphemous” content. A few months later, Iran’s then-supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a religious decree calling for Rushdie’s assassination.
For several years the author was in hiding, as he feared for his life. Iran’s government announced in 1998 that it no longer supported the religious decree (“fatfa”), but extremist Muslim organizations offered a million-dollar reward for anyone who assassinated the Indian-born author.
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