13/8/2022–|Last update: 8/13/202205:42 PM (Mecca)
The condition of the British writer of Indian origin, Salman Rushdie, is stable after being placed on a respirator, after he was stabbed during a lecture on stage in western New York State on Friday morning.
Rushdi, 75, was airlifted to the hospital, where he underwent surgery.
Rushdie’s spokesman, Andrew Wylie, said in a statement issued Friday evening, that the writer had serious injuries, and had been placed on a ventilator.
The statement added, “The news is not good. It is possible that Salman will lose one of his eyes as the nerves in his arm were severed. And his liver was damaged.”
And the American police announced that a doctor from the public helped take care of Rushdie until emergency services were able to reach him.
It also indicated that Henry Reese, 73, who was interviewing Rushdie when the accident occurred, sustained minor head injuries.
US authorities later said that the man suspected of stabbing Salman Rushdie was named Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, and entered the lecture by purchasing a ticket to attend the event.
Writer #Salman_RushdieThe owner of Satanic verses is being stabbed pic.twitter.com/WRKx9v0j38
– Hashtag program (@ajmhashtag) August 12, 2022
A report published by the British newspaper (The Independent) stated that the administration of the place where the lecture was held refused advice to tighten security prior to the Salman Rushdie seminar.
CNN quoted unnamed sources as saying that recommendations related to security measures, including baggage checks and metal detectors, “were not adopted by the Chautauqua Foundation”, where Rushdie was scheduled to give a lecture, due to fears that this would change the culture of the place.
The type of weapon used by the attacker has not yet been confirmed.
The CNN report also revealed that Hadi Matar was holding a forged driver’s license in the name of Hassan Mughniyeh, the family name of a Hezbollah leader.
It is reported that Imad Mughniyeh is the second man in the leadership of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, who was killed by the CIA in 2008 in Syria.
Rushdie, born into an Indian Muslim family, faced widespread criticism for his fourth novel, “The Satanic Verses”, which was described as containing paragraphs demeaning the Islamic religion, and the novel was banned in many countries when it was published in 1988.
The following year, the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie to be killed for blasphemy (mockery of God’s words, signs, and messengers).