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Author Salman Rushdie stabbed onstage, hospitalised

Published

2 years ago

August 13, 2022

Salman Rushdie

British author Salman Rushdie, whose writings have made him the target of Iranian death threats, was attacked and stabbed in the neck at a literary event on Friday in western New York state.

Police said that a male suspect stormed the stage and attacked Rushdie and an interviewer, with the writer suffering “an apparent stab wound to the neck.”

He was rushed by helicopter to a local hospital, police said, adding that his condition was not known.

New York governor Kathy Hochul said Rushdie was alive, and hailed him as “an individual who has spent decades speaking truth to power.”

“We condemn all violence, and we want people to be able to feel (the) freedom to speak and to write truth,” she said.

A state trooper assigned to the event at the Chautauqua Institution, where Rushdie was due to give a talk, immediately took the suspect into custody.

Police gave no details about the suspect’s identity or any probable motive.

Social media footage showed people rushing to Rushdie’s aid and administrating emergency medical care. The interviewer also suffered a head injury in the attack.

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The Chautauqua Institution — which puts on arts and literary programming in a tranquil lakeside community seventy miles (110 kilometers) south of Buffalo — said in a statement that it was coordinating with law enforcement and emergency officials.

– A decade in hiding –

Rushdie, 75, was propelled into the spotlight with his second novel “Midnight’s Children” in 1981, which won international praise and Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize for its portrayal of post-independence India.

But his 1988 book “The Satanic Verses” brought attention beyond his imagination when it sparked a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for his death by Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The novel was considered by some Muslims as disrespectful of the Prophet Mohammed.

Rushdie, who was born in India to non-practicing Muslims and today identifies as an atheist, was forced to go underground as a bounty was put on his head — which remains today.

He was granted police protection by the government in Britain, where he was at school and where he made his home, following the murder or attempted murder of his translators and publishers.

He spent nearly a decade in hiding, moving houses repeatedly and being unable to tell his children where he lived.

Rushdie only began to emerge from his life on the run in the late 1990s after Iran in 1998 said it would not support his assassination.

Now living in New York, he is an advocate of freedom of speech, notably launching a strong defence of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo after its staff were gunned down by Islamists in Paris in 2015.

The magazine had published drawings of Mohammed that drew furious reactions from Muslims worldwide.

– An ‘essential voice’ –

Threats and boycotts continue against literary events that Rushdie attends, and his knighthood in 2007 sparked protests in Iran and Pakistan, where a government minister said the honor justified suicide bombings.

The fatwa failed to stifle Rushdie’s writing and inspired his memoirs “Joseph Anton,” named after his alias while in hiding and written in the third person.

“Midnight’s Children” — which runs to more than 600 pages — has been adapted for the stage and silver screen, and his books have been translated into more than 40 languages.

Suzanne Nossel, head of the PEN America organization, said the free speech advocacy group was “reeling from shock and horror.”

“Just hours before the attack, on Friday morning, Salman had emailed me to help with placements for Ukrainian writers in need of safe refuge from the grave perils they face,” Nossel said in a statement.

“Our thoughts and passions now lie with our dauntless Salman, wishing him a full and speedy recovery. We hope and believe fervently that his essential voice cannot and will not be silenced.”

AFP

Related Topics:Author Salman Rushdie hospitalised stabbed

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Customs intercept containers carrying arms worth N13.9bn

Published

1 hour ago

July 1, 2024

Trends Admin

Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adeniyi

Customs intercept containers carrying arms worth N13.9bn

The Nigeria Customs Service said its operatives intercepted nine containers carrying offensive items including arms, ammunition, Illicit drugs and second-hand clothes worth N13.9 billion.

The Comptroller-General, NCS, Adewale Adeniyi disclosed this on Monday while addressing journalists in Onne Port, Rivers State.

Adeniyi said one of the containers which originated from Turkey, based on the number of risk factors associated with the importation, became a subject of interest to the service.

Giving details of the container, the CG said, “We have followed its sail across continents and we’ve benefitted immensely from credible information through our collaboration with intelligence communities both at local, national and international levels,”

According to him, the importer tried to circumvent the procedure through the outlet of a private-bonded terminal.

“On Friday 21st of June 2024, the auspicious container was subjected to a thorough physical examination. Inside the container were 844 units of assorted riffles and 12,500 pieces of life ammunition,” which Adeniyi said were “concealed with various items like doors, furniture fittings and leather bags.”

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24 female suicide bombers hiding in Borno communities, two arrested – Report

Published

1 hour ago

July 1, 2024

Trends Admin

24 female suicide bombers hiding in Borno communities, two arrested – Report

There are fears among residents of Gwoza and other communities in Borno State after four female suicide detonated Improvised Explosive Devices at different locations on Sunday killing 18 people and many injured.

Although security operatives have swung into action leading to the arrest of two female suicide bombers in the state, there are reports that 24 others could still be lurking around.

This indication emerged on Monday following a report that 30 female suicide bombers were unleashed on the Borno city to cause explosion in different places on Sunday.

A local government official who confirmed this to Channels Television said out of 30 female suicide bombers sent into Gwoza to detonate the IEDs, only four exploded so far.

She explained that one of the female bombers that came from Pulka Axis was responding to military interrogation at the checkpoint when she panicked and detonated the IED killing herself, the soldier and a civilian JTF member.

It was gathered that the women got into Gwoza from different locations, some from Pulka and others from the Mandara mountains.

The attack, one of the deadliest reported in the state in recent months, injured more than 30 persons. The degree of injuries ranges from abdominal ruptures to skull and limb fractures.

The Director-General of SEMA, Barkindo Saidu, said he witnessed the first blast.

“In my presence, at about 3pm, the first bomb blast in Gwoza occurred, detonated by a female suicide bomber in the midst of the marriage ceremony celebration,” he wrote in a situation report later in the day.

“It affected more than 30 persons with various levels of injuries and instant death. Some minutes later, another blast occurred around General Hospital.”

The wedding was held at Tashan Mararaba near the Fire Service in Gwoza town.

A survivor said the first bomber was carrying a baby on her back when she stormed the venue and detonated the IED.

As people gathered to bury those killed at the wedding, Saidu said a third bomber, a lady, detonated another IED with a lot of casualties.

While emergency officials were in the hospital coordinating the rescue mission, a fourth blast was set off by a female teenager.

“So far, 18 deaths comprise children, adult males, females, and pregnant women. 19 seriously injured were conveyed to Maiduguri in four ambulances,” Saidu said.

At the time he released the situation report, he said 23 were waiting for military escort “in the Medical Regimental Services (MRS) Clinic”.

The evacuation of the injured continued into the night with the SEMA DG, who was in Gwoza when the attacks occurred, coordinating the process from there.

He also said he had received a report of a suspected suicide bomber in Pulka but did not provide further details about that.

The military has imposed a curfew in Gwoza LGA in the wake of the attacks.

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12 Ajayi Crowther University students accused of murder released

Published

1 hour ago

July 1, 2024

Trends Admin

Ajayi Crowther University

12 Ajayi Crowther University students accused of murder released

Twelve out of the 25 students of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, brought before an Iyaganku Chief Magistrates’ Court, Ibadan for alleged murder were on Monday discharged.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the 25 students, arraigned on June 5, were charged with conspiracy, murder and negligence.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs Olabisi Ogunkanmi, had ordered the students to be remanded in a correctional facility in Ibadan, pending the outcome of legal advice.

The 12 discharged students are: Kehinde Martins, Samuel Okorie, Mustapha Khalid, Yusuf Adeniran, Joseph Areoye, Iyanuoluwa Oyelakin, Obaloluwa Olalekan, Emmanuel Adejumobi, John Daudu, Moses Abiola, Hammad Tijani and David Kolawole.

Ogunkanmi, while discharging them, held that the legal advice was out, which indicated that the 12 students should not be charged with any offence, as there was no evidence linking any of them with the offences alleged to have been committed.