Shocked, saddened by the brutal attack on author Salman Rushdie: WHO chief

The 75-year-old Mumbai-born writer was stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey resident identified as Hadi Matar on stage on Friday

World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he is shocked and saddened by the brutal attack on author Salman Rushdie, calling it “cowardice and abhorrent.”

The 75-year-old Mumbai-born writer, who faced Islamist death threats for years after writing The Satanic Verses, was stabbed by a 24-year-old New Jersey resident identified as Hadi Matar on stage on Friday while he was being introduced at the event of the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York.

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“Shocked and saddened by the brutal attack on #SalmanRushdie. This is cowardice and abhorrent. My thoughts are with him and his loved ones,” Ghebreyesus tweeted. Matar, who stabbed author Salman Rushdie, is facing charges of attempted murder and assault.

The New York State Police, which is investigating the attack on prior to a speaking event at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, said that on Friday the Bureau of Criminal Investigation arrested Hadi Matar of Fairview, New Jersey for “Attempted Murder 2nd degree and Assault 2nd degree.”

Matar was processed at State Police Jamestown and transported to Chautauqua County Jail and will be arraigned in centralised arraignment on Saturday.