Author Salman Rushdie is on ventilator and is likely to lose one eye as his liver was “stabbed and damaged” following an attack on him on Friday, his agent said, noting that the “news is not good”.
The New York Times (NYT) reported that according to Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, the Mumbai-born controversial author was on a ventilator and could not speak.
“The news is not good. Salman will likely lose one eye, the nerves in his arm were severed and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” Wylie said in a statement to NYT.
Rushdie, who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing “The Satanic Verses”, was stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey resident at an event in western New York State.
Hadi Matar (24) from Fairview, New Jersey has been identified as the suspect who stabbed Rushdie, Major Eugene Staniszewski of the New York State Police told a press conference on Friday evening.
Rushdie (75) was stabbed in the neck as he was on the stage at the Chautauqua Institution, a not-for-profit community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 people are in residence on any day during a nine-week season.
