Famous and controversial author Salman Rushdi has been recovering from injuries received when he was stabbed at a literary event near New York on Friday. He was taken off the ventilator on Saturday evening. It was confirmed by Andrew Wylie, Rushdie’s agent. However, he deleted the tweet after some time. Rushdie’s fellow author Aatish Taseer tweeted on Saturday evening that ‘he (Rushdie) was off the ventilator and talking (joking).’ Rushdie, 75, suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, the agent said. The author has been living under death threat for more than three decades. He lived in London for ten years. He has been living in the US for the last two decades.
Hadi Matar, the 24-year old man who stabbed the writer pleaded not guilty while the prosecutor described it as a preplanned crime. The charges were attempt to murder and assault. With his hands cuffed, the accused appeared in the court in black and while jump suit. “This was a targeted, unprovoked, preplanned attack on Mr. Rushdie,” Jason Schmidt, the District Attorney said. He ordered the attacker to be in custody without bail.
Among those who condemned the attack was Joe Biden, the US President, who said, “The writer stands for essential and universal ideals – truth, courage and resilience. I am grateful to the first responders and the brave individuals who jumped into action to render aid to Rushdie and subdue the attacker.” Rushdie’s book Satanic Verses, published in 1988, evoked fury among the Muslim community, especially the Iranians, saying that the book was disrespectful to Prophet Mohammad. The then Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa asking the believers to assassinate the author for the sacrilege. He declared an award of 30 lakh dollars for those who kill the author. But Ayatollah himself passed away in 1989. The Iran government subsequently said in 1998 that it will not pursue the fatwa.
Also read: Salman Rushdie stabbed, operated, may lose an eye, on ventilator
