‘Liver was stabbed… he may lose eye’ — Rushdie’s agent speaks on New York attack

Salman Rushdie, a renowned author who has received death threats over his writings, is currently on a ventilator and unable to speak after being stabbed in the US.

Andrew Wylie, his agent, said the author may lose one eye following the attack.

Rushdie, author of the controversial novel, The Satanic Verses, was attacked on Friday when he was about to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.

The author was said to have been stabbed in the neck and abdomen, after which he was taken to a hospital in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Wylie, in an email to The New York Times, said Rushdie’s liver was affected.

“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,” he said.

The police have also detained a 24-year-old suspect, identified as Hadi Matar, from Fairview, New Jersey.

The Satanic Verses, a novel published in 1988 and based on magical realism but with references that challenge Islamic beliefs, was the source of controversy and led to protests, bombings and it was banned in some countries.

In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini, supreme leader of Iran at the time, issued a fatwa (an Islamic religious decree) which ordered the killing of Rushdie, and the author was forced into hiding for several years.

However, while the government of Iran has now said it no longer supports the move to kill Rushdie, as of 2016, a bounty of over $3 million was reportedly raised for his killing.