Guwahati: Salman Rushdie, the author of “The Satanic Verses,” who was assaulted while performing in the United States, was taken off the ventilator on Sunday.
Rushdie is now able to speak and has been taken off of ventilator support, according to his representative.
The author, who was born in India, was assaulted by a guy as he waited to speak at Chautauqua Institution in western New York about the significance of the US providing shelter for artists in exile.
Rushdie was stabbed more than “10 to 15” times by the suspect after storming the stage at the Chautauqua Institution. The author quickly collapsed to the ground, and the attacker was handcuffed. The author was surrounded by a small group of individuals who were holding up his legs to allegedly increase the flow of blood to his heart.
Salman Rushdie, winner of the Booker and Best of Booker prizes for “Midnight’s Children,” received a “fatwa” in 1989 from Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran at the time, for his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which allegedly insults Islam.
According to the reports, the accused, identified as Hadi Matar was carrying out the fatwa issued in 1989.
The defendant entered a not guilty plea despite being charged with attempted murder and assault in connection with the attack.
The attack has drawn attention on a global scale, and several well-known leaders have denounced the author’s attack.
After learning about the author’s attack, US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden released a statement in which they expressed their “horror and sadness.”
Harry Potter author JK Rowling began to receive death threats as a result of her support for Salman Rushdie and her condemnation of the attack on the author on social media.
Rowling had tweeted, “Feeling very sick right now. Let him be ok” to which a user replied, “Don’t worry you are next.”