Iranian foundation announces agricultural land as reward for Rushdie attacker: Report

NEW DELHI,FEB 21 : An Iranian foundation has announced a reward of 1,000 square metres of agricultural land for the man who attacked Salman Rushdie, reports said.

“We sincerely thank the brave action of the young American who made Muslims happy by blinding one of Rushdie’s eyes and disabling one of his hands,” said Mohammad Esmail Zarei, secretary of the Foundation to Implement Imam Khomeini’s Fatwas, according to Reuters.

“Rushdie is now no more than living dead and, to honour this brave action, about 1,000 square metres of agricultural land will be donated to the person or any of his legal representatives,” the report quoted the foundation secretary as saying.

Rushdie, 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, the US national of Lebanese origin, on stage on August last year while he was being introduced at a literary event of the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York.

Rushdie lived in hiding for years after Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ordered his killing for what he deemed the blasphemous nature of “The Satanic Verses,” published in 1988.

-ANI