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Salman Rushdie was attacked with a knife during an event in western New York.
Rushdie suffered a neck injury. He underwent surgery at a hospital in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
He was awarded the Booker Prize for Salman Rushdie’s book ‘Midnight’s Children’.
New York. A 24-year-old suspect, sympathetic to the objectives of “Shia extremists” and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been taken into custody in connection with the knife attack on noted author Salman Rushdie. This claim has been made in the media. New York State Police have identified the suspect as Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey, but the motive for the attack is yet to be ascertained. The attacker attacked Rushdie on stage while giving a speech at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York.
Police said Matar’s citizenship and criminal background were still being probed. NBC News, citing a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation, said a preliminary investigation of Matar’s social media accounts showed he was sympathetic to the motives of Shia extremism and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“NBC News” reported that although there is no direct link between Matar and the Islamic revolutionaries yet, law enforcement agency officials have seen photographs of slain Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani and an Iraqi extremist sympathetic to the Iranian regime . Matar’s cell phone messaging app is available. Soleimani was a senior Iranian military officer who was assassinated in 2020.
Salman Rushdie’s surgery in hospital
On the other hand, Mumbai-born and Booker Prize winner Rushdie (75) was about to begin his lecture at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York on Friday when the accused stormed onto the stage and attacked Rushdie with punches and knives. Rushdie suffered a neck injury. He was being introduced in the program at that time. The injured Rushdie was taken to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania where he underwent surgery. Rushdie is not in a position to say anything yet.
Rushdie wins Booker Prize for ‘Midnight’s Children’
Rushdie’s controversial book The Satanic Verses has been banned in Iran since 1988. Iran’s supreme leader at the time, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khamenei, issued a fatwa to punish Rushdie for this. Iran also offered a reward of more than $3 million for Rushdie’s murder. Rushdie spent 10 years in the UK under police protection. He has been living in America since 2000. She was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize for Salman Rushdie’s book ‘Midnight’s Children’.
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tags: iran, Salman Rushdie
First Published: August 13, 2022, 23:44 IST
