An unidentified individual attacked British writer Salman Rushdie during a lecture in New York. The attacker was captured almost immediately, but he managed to inflict several blows on Rushdie, a Booker Prize laureate.
Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck. The writer was airlifted to hospital.
Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie. The reason was Rushdie's book "Satanic Verses", which was published in 1988 and caused serious criticism from Muslims in a number of countries. As a result, the writer had to hide from the public. The British government took the writer under protection. In 2000, he moved to the USA.
The Iranian 15-Khordad Foundation later posted a multi-million dollar reward for Rushdie's assassination.
