Salman Rushdie, the renowned British-American novelist, who has won the Booker Prize for ‘Midnight’s Children’ (2012) was attacked and stabbed while delivering a lecture in western New York at the Chautauqua Institution on Friday, August 12 in front of thousands of people.
Rushdie was rushed to the nearest hospital immediately. The novelist’s agent, Andrew Wylie, officially announced to The New York Times that the news is not good about him as Rushdie is in serious condition and has been put on ventilation, “Salman will likely lose one eye. The nerves in his arm were severed and his liver was stabbed and damaged.”
An official statement from New York Police stated, “On August 12, 2022, at about 11am, a male suspect ran up on to the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer. Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital. His condition is not yet known. The interviewer suffered a minor head injury. A State Trooper assigned to the event immediately took the suspect into custody. The Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene. More information will be released when it is available.”
The attacker got arrested and identified as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from New Jersey. New York Police is about to press charge against Matar depending on Rushdie’s condition.
Although the motive of the attack is still unclear to the police, people doubt that Matar’s sympathy for Iranian government possibly made him commit this heinous crime, as his maximum Facebook posts show his huge support for Ayatollah Khomeini. The Iranian leader had issued Fatwa against Salman Rushdie in 1989 after the publication of Rushdie’s novel, ‘The Satanic Verses’ in 1988.
