SALMAN RUSHDIE LOSES SIGHT IN EYE AFTER ATTACK

Award-winning author Salman Rushdie has lost sight in one of his eyes, the use of one of his hands and has permanent damage to his liver. This follows a horrific attack that took place during a literary event in western New York, United States.

Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and torso while on stage at the literary festival that took place in August.

His agent, Andrew Wylie, said the author’s injuries are serious.

“He had three serious wounds in his neck. One hand is incapacitated because the nerves in his arm were cut. And he has about 15 more wounds in his chest and torso.”

News24 reports that the attack came 33 years after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s supreme leader, issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie a few months after (his book) The Satanic Verses was published. Some Muslims saw passages in the novel about the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.

Rushdie, who was born in India, lived under police protection in Britain for almost a decade before he appeared in public again.

The 24-year-old New Jersey man who was arrested for the brutal attack has pleaded not guilty. He is being held in a New Yok state prison without bail.

Image credit: CNN