Sir Salman Rushdie has lost use of eye and hand following attack, his agent says

Salman Rushdie survived the onstage attack at a literary festival in New York this summer. Credit: PA

Sir Salmon Rushdie’s agent says the author has lost sight in one eye and the use of a hand as he recovers from an attack in New York.

The British-Indian writer was knifed by a man who rushed the stage at a literature event in August.

He survived the attack, but has been left with life-changing injuries, his literary agent has told media.

Andrew Wylie told the Spanish language newspaper El Pais that Rushdie suffered three serious wounds to his neck and 15 more wounds to his chest and torso in the attack, which has robbed him of sight in one eye and left one of his hands incapacitated.

Rushdie, 75, spent years in hiding after Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a 1989 fatwa, calling for his death after publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses,” which some Muslims consider blasphemous.

Arrest made after Salman Rushdie stabbed in neck on New York stage

Over the past two decades, Rushdie has travelled freely.

Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, has been incarcerated after pleading not guilty to attempted murder and assault in the August 12 attack on Rushdie as he was being introduced at the Chautauqua Institution.

After the attack, Rushdie was treated in hospital, where he was briefly put on a ventilator to recover from what Wylie told El Pais was a “brutal attack” that cut nerves to one arm.

Wylie told the newspaper he could not say whether Rushdie remained in a hospital or discuss his whereabouts.

“He's going to live ... That's the important thing,” Wylie said.

The attack was along the lines of what Rushie and his agent have thought was the “principal danger ... a random person coming out of nowhere and attacking," Wylie told El Pais.

Hadi Matar said Sir Salman was ‘someone who attacked Islam’ but did not confirm that his actions were driven by a fatwa issued by Iran Credit: Gene J Puskar/AP

“So you can't protect against it because it's totally unexpected and illogical,” he said.

Wylie compared the attack to John Lennon's murder.

The former Beatle was shot to death by Mark David Chapman outside his Manhattan apartment building in 1980, hours after Lennon had signed an autograph for his assailant.

In a jailhouse interview with The New York Post, Matar said he disliked Rushdie and praised Khomeini, while admitting he had only read "a couple pages" of The Satanic Verses.

Iran has denied involvement in the attack.

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