Author Salman Rushdie stabbed onstage in NY
New York: Salman Rushdie, the Mumbai-born controversial author who faced Islamist death threats after writing 'The Satanic Verses', was attacked and suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck when a man stormed the stage as he was getting ready to deliver a lecture during an event here on Friday, New York Police said.
Rushdie, 75, who won the Booker Prize for his novel Midnight's Children', was stabbed by a man on stage while he was being introduced at the event of the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York.
He fell through a barrier to the stage and was seen with blood on his hands. The audience tackled the attacker and Rushdie was then treated onstage following the assault. State Police are investigating an attack on author Salman Rushdie prior to a speaking event at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY. On August 12, 2022, at about 11 a.m., a male suspect ran up onto the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer, New York Police said in a statement.
Police gave no details about the suspect's identity or any probable motive.
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, it said.
Rushdie's fourth book The Satanic Verses in 1988 forced him into hiding for nine years.
A year after the book's publication, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini called for Rushdie's execution for publishing the book for its blasphemous content.
Since the 1980s, Rushdie's writing has led to death threats from Iran, which has offered a $3 million reward for anyone who kills him.
"Thank you to the swift response of @nyspolice & first responders following today's attack of author Salman Rushdie. Our thoughts are with Salman & his loved ones following this horrific event. I have directed State Police to further assist however needed in the investigation," said New York State Governor Kathy Hochul.
Several users on the social media site posted visuals from the event in Chautauqua, New York that showed emergency medical crews and other authorities on stage at the event where Rushdie was reportedly stabbed.
One Twitter user said the amphitheater where the event was being held has been evacuated and Rushdie was taken off the stage while the attacker is in custody.
The Chautauqua Institution -- which puts on arts and literary programming in a lakeside community some seventy miles (110 kilometers) south of Buffalo -- said in a statement that it was coordinating with law enforcement and emergency officials following the attack.
One of the most celebrated authors of our time, Salman Rushdie is the author of 14 novels, four works of nonfiction and a collection of short stories, in addition to serving as co-editor of two anthologies, the organisation said.
The winner of many of the world's top literary prizes, Rushdie served as founding president in 1994 of the International Parliament of Writers (now the International Network of Cities of Asylum) an organisation formed to create structures capable of aiding and supporting persecuted writers, and what eventually became known as the Cities of Asylum Network, it said.
Rushdie's works include Luka and the Fire of Life; Grimus; Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and, later, the Best of the Booker); Shame; The Satanic Verses; Haroun and the Sea of Stories; The Moor's Last Sigh; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Fury; Shalimar the Clown among others.
His memoir is titled Joseph Anton named for the pseudonym he used while in hiding following the fatwa that had been issued by Khomeini in the midst of widespread controversy over Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.
