NEW DELHI: British author Salman Rushdie is likely to lose an eye even as he continues to be on a ventilator with damaged liver following Friday’s brutal stabbing onstage in New York, the Mumbai-born writer’s agent Andrew Wylie said on Saturday.
“The news is not good. He will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed, and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” Wylie said. The police have identified the attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, a resident of Fairfield, New Jersey, who now faces charges of attempted murder and assault. His motive for the attack is not yet known.
However, US media reports claimed that he is sympathetic to Shia extremism and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps causes. Iran had in 1988 issued a fatwa urging Muslims to kill Rushdie over his portrayal of Prophet Mohammad in his book The Satanic Verses. The attack shocked the international community. “Appalled that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while exercising a right we should never cease to defend,” British PM Boris Johnson tweeted. French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that Rushdie embodies “freedom and the fight against obscurantism.”
Macron said he was a victim of a cowardly attack by forces of hatred and barbarism. “His fight is our fight; it is universal. Now more than ever, we stand by his side,” he tweeted. US National Security Advisory Jake Sullivan said the violence against Rushdie is appalling.
“Today, the country and the world witnessed a reprehensible attack against the writer Salman Rushdie,” he said, adding “All of us in the Biden- Harris Administration are praying for his speedy recovery.” The literary community also expressed shock and anger over the attack. “Where is humanity going? A day of such distress, such shame. Violence must not be allowed to become the way of dealing with differences of opinion,” Geetanjali Shree, the first Indian to win International Booker Prize, tweeted. In Iran, many praised the attacker, including a section of its media.
MATAR CHARGED WITH ATTEMPT TO MURDER
The 24-year-old New Jersey man who stabbed Salman Rushdie at a literary event in New York state is facing charges of attempted murder and assault, police said on Saturday
The New York State Police Jamestown said the Bureau of Criminal Investigation arrested Hadi
Matar for ‘attempted murder 2nd degree and assault 2nd degree’