Suggestions To increase Security At Salman Rushdie Event Was Ignored: Report

New Delhi: 75-year-old Salman Rushdie is on ventilator after he was brutally attacked during an event in New York. Salman Rushdie was stabbed in the neck and abdomen by a 24-year-old man, who hailed from New Jersey, as he was on the stage at the Chautauqua Institution, a not-for-profit community on Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State. Even as Salman Rushdie was battling for his life after he was stabbed, questions have been raised about the security arrangements at the New York event where the author was attacked.Also Read – Hadi Matar, Salman Rushdie Attacker, Was Sympathetic To Islamic Revolutionary Guards Causes. What We Know So Far

Arrangements for increased security at Salman Rushdie event ignored?

The leadership at the Chautauqua Institution had rejected past recommendations to increase security at events, two sources told CNN. The recommendations for basic security measures, such as bag checks and metal detectors, were rejected because the leadership feared it would create a divide between speakers and the audience, and would change the culture at Chautauqua, the report said.

Salman Rushdie stabbed: What happened on the day

Salman Rushdie was about to speak at the special Chautauqua Lecture Series event exploring the theme of “More than Shelter” for a “discussion on the United States as an asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression”.

He was joined by Henry Reese, co-founder of the Pittsburgh nonprofit City of Asylum, the largest residency programme in the world for writers living in exile under the threat of persecution.

State Police Troop Commander Major Eugene J Staniszewski said at approximately 10:47 am local time, Rushdie and Reese (73) had just arrived on stage at the Chautauqua Institution for the event. “Shortly thereafter, the suspect jumped onto the stage and attacked Rushdie, stabbing him at least once in the neck and at least once in the abdomen.”

Staniszewski said several members of the staff at the institution and audience members rushed the suspect and took him to the ground. A trooper with the New York State Police, who was at the institution, took the suspect into custody with the assistance of a Chautauqua County Sheriff’s deputy.

Reese was transported via ambulance to a local hospital, treated for facial injuries and subsequently released, authorities said.