The man arrested for stabbing Salman Rushdie had a fake driver’s license in the name of a Hezbollah leader who was an ally of slain Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Fox News and other US media outlets say the suspected gunman, identified as Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old from the New Jersey area, was using the assumed name Hassan Mughniah on his license.
The surname Imad Mughniah, second-in-command of the Lebanese Shiite militant movement Tehreek Hezbollah, was assassinated by the CIA in Syria in 2008.
Controversial writer Salman Rushdie is likely to lose one of his eyes, according to the latest reports, he was fitted with a ventilator after being seriously injured in Friday’s attack.
According to the French news agency AFP, Salman Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, has said in a statement that “this is not good news”. Salman is likely to lose one of his eyes. The veins in her arm and his liver were damaged in the attack.
Earlier, British author Salman Rushdie was attached to a ventilator after being attacked at a literary event in the US state of New York on Friday and it is feared he may lose his eye.
Salman Rushdie was attacked in West New York when he was on stage to give a lecture at an institution called Shutokwa.
When the masked suspect attacked Salman Rushdie, who was born to Indian Muslim parents 75 years ago, he stabbed him 10 to 15 times with a knife. All this happened in just twenty seconds as a result of which Salman Rushdie was seriously injured.
According to Al-Arabiya Urdu, if Salman Rushdie had not backed down at the time of the attack, the 24-year-old could have taken his own life.
According to a New York police officer, the motive for the attack is still unclear and that he is the only one involved. “We are working with the FBI to investigate if he was the only one involved.”
According to Independent Farsi’s Mojtaba Dehghani, the 24-year-old suspect was a supporter of Hezbollah in Lebanon and praised former and current leaders of Iran and Qassem Soleimani.
FBI agents raided the residence of Hadi Matar, who is said to be of Lebanese origin. His residence address was found on a driver’s license issued in the state of New Jersey in which he used the pseudonym ‘Hasan Mughnia’ instead of his real name Hadi Matar.
This is probably a clear indication of his interest in the former commander of Hezbollah’s Lebanese military branch, Imad Mughnia, who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.
Imad Mughniah was the founder of the Lebanese Islamic Jihad organization after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. In the first operation by Mughniah and members of his organization, the headquarters of the US Marines and French peacekeepers in Beirut was blown up and 350 people died.
Imad Mughniah and the Lebanese Islamic Jihad organization were also responsible for dozens of kidnappings of Western citizens in Lebanon, the hijacking of US airlines in Beirut, and the bombing of an Israeli Jewish centre in Argentina.
In the 1990s, the group merged with the parent organization Hezbollah Lebanon and has since operated as Hezbollah’s Lebanese military branch.
Imad Mughniah was assassinated in Damascus in 2008, moments after finishing a meeting with Qassem Soleimani and a Syrian security official.
It is suspected that Salman Rushdie’s killer was one of Mughnia’s admirers and therefore his driver’s license was registered under the assumed name of Hasan Mughnia. This driving license is valid until September 12, 2026, and was issued in May of this year. According to the information on this certificate, Hadi Matar was born on September 12, 1997.
Furthermore, a Facebook account attributed to him, which has now been blocked, shows that he has expressed his views on behalf of Ali Khamenei and Ruhollah Khomeini, Qassem Soleimani and Hezbollah figures in Lebanon. Promoted to scale.
Hadi Matar, who turns 25 in September, recently moved to New Jersey. His last known address was Fairview, a part of Bergen County.
According to AFP, Salman Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, said: “Salman is likely to lose one of his eyes. They cut the veins in his arm and stabbed into his liver, causing damage.
Agent Andrew Wylie added that “Rushdie is unable to speak at this time.”
The New York State Police say they are investigating the attack on Salman Rushdie. According to police, Salman Rushdie apparently had stab wounds to his neck and was airlifted to a nearby hospital.
The 75-year-old Booker Prize-winning author was stabbed “multiple times” at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York at 11 a.m. Friday, the New York police said in a statement.
The people present held his legs so that his blood would not flow too much. He was later airlifted to an area hospital.
New York State Police say the officer assigned to protect Salman Rushdie has detained a suspect, but the identity of the attacker has not yet been released.
According to the Associated Press (AP), a man hit and stabbed Salman Rushdie onstage while he was being introduced.
According to AP, Salman Rushdie was tackled to the ground there, while the attacker was captured.
Salman Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, said in an email to the media Friday afternoon that he will undergo surgery.
Earlier, New York Governor Cathy Hoeckel told reporters at a news conference around 12:30 p.m. m. that Rushdie is ‘alive’ and ‘getting the attention he needs.
In 1988, a fatwa was issued to kill Salman Rushdie in Iran for writing his controversial book ‘Satanic Verses’. Many Muslims consider this novel blasphemous.
A year after the book’s publication, Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie’s death.
A bounty of more than $3 million was also posted for Rushdie’s murder.
Iran’s government has long been silent on Khomeini’s edict, but anti-Rushdi sentiments still linger and security is provided at all times.
In 2012, a semi-official Iranian religious foundation raised the reward for Rushdie’s murder to $3.3 million.
Salman Rushdie, 75, rose to fame in 1981 with his second novel, Midnight’s Children, which brought him worldwide acclaim, but his 1988 book, The Satanic Verses, sparked outrage among Muslims around the world.
After the murders of several translators and publishers, the British government gave Salman Rushdie police protection.
Salman Rushdie has two sons. He has had four marriages, including his recent marriage to model and TV presenter Padma Lakshmi. They married in 2003 and separated three years later.
They spent nearly a decade in hiding, moving houses frequently and unable to tell their children where they really lived.
Rushdie began to come out in the late 1990s after Iran said in 1998 that it would not support his assassination.
Now based in New York, Salman Rushdie is a strong supporter of free speech, in particular defending the French magazine after the 2015 attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris. On the other hand, threats and boycotts against his participation in literary events have also continued.
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