Salman Rushdie stabbed: Kangana Ranaut, Javed Akhtar condemn attack on writer, Swara Bhasker calls it ‘shameful’

A host of Bollywood celebrities have condemned an attack on writer Salman Rushdie on Friday. Kangana Ranaut said she was “appalled” by the incident while Swara Bhasker called it shameful. Javed Akhtar and Ranvir Shorey have also condemned the attack. Also read: Kangana Ranaut gets dengue but continues to work on Emergency

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

Kangana shared a news article about the attack on her Instagram Stories and wrote, “Another day another appalling act by jihadis. The Satanic Verses is one of the greatest book of it’s time… I am shaken beyond words… Appalling.”

Javed Akhtar also condemned the attack. He wrote on Twitter, “I condemn the barbaric attack on Salman Rushdie by some fanatic. I hope that NY police and the court will take the strongest action possible against the attacker.”

Swara Bhasker called the incident shameful and tweeted, “Thoughts and prayers for #SalmanRushdie. Shameful, condemnable and dastardly this attack! #SalmanRushdieStabbed.”

Ranvir Shorey retweeted several posts about Salman Rushdie and called the attacker “predator”. Reacting to a tweet that read: “The crazies have truly taken over the world,” Ranvir wrote, “They aren’t crazies. They go for the neck. They’re predators.”

The injured author was airlifted from a field adjacent to the venue to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania where the 75-year-old writer underwent surgery. The author, who won the Booker Prize for his novel Midnight’s Children, was unable to speak. Salman Rushdie “will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged,” the writer’s agent Andrew Wylie told The New York Times. “The news is not good,” he said.