Novelist Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and torso onstage at a lecture in New York state on Friday and was subsequently airlifted to a hospital, according to police.
Rushdie, who was born in India but lived for years in hiding after Iran called on Muslims to kill him for his writing, had been in hiding for years prior to the attack.
On Friday night, after hours of surgery, Rushdie was still on a ventilator and unable to talk in the wake of an attack that was widely criticized as an attack on the right to free speech.
Who Stabbed Salman Rushdie in The Neck?
According to Major Eugene J. Staniszewski’s press conference on Friday afternoon, Hadi Matar, 24, of New Jersey was arrested on Friday morning after allegedly storming the stage and stabbing the author at least once in the neck and abdomen at the Chautauqua Institution.
Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old man from Fairview, New Jersey, who had purchased a ticket to the show, was detained by a security officer from the New York State Police force.
According to the authorities, a doctor in the audience assisted in treating Rushdie until paramedics came.
The police reported that they were coordinating with federal agents to establish a motive.
