Author Salman Rushdie was taken off the ventilator last night as he remained hospitalised with serious injuries after being stabbed at a literary event in New York, multiple reports said.
Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed that the author was taken off the ventilator and could be able to talk, without giving further details, according to the Washington Post.
Hadi Matar, the 24-year-old man accused of stabbing Salman Rushdie, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault charges in what a prosecutor called a “preplanned” crime.
The attack was met with shock and outrage from much of the world. US President Joe Biden condemned the “vicious attack” on Salman Rushdie, and 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,” President Biden said.
Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and abdomen by the suspect at the Chautauqua Institution near New York City. A preliminary review of Matar’s social media showed him to be sympathetic to “Shia extremism” and the causes of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).
Salman Rushdie’s 1998 book “The Satanic Verses” was considered by some Muslims as disrespectful of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad. The novel led to a fatwa, a religious decree, by Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The threat forced him into hiding for several years.
With inputs from NDTV
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