A day after author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in western New York, reports emerged stating that the accused named Hadi Matar used a fake driver’s license bearing the name Hassan Mughniyah. This name is a mix of two senior officials of the terror group Hezbollah. The Hezbollah’s current leader is Hassan Nasrallah while Imad Mughniyeh was a senior Hezbollah official close to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani.
Qassem Soleimani was assassinated by the US forces in January 2020 in Iraq in a targeted attack.
The information was shared by Belgian Member of Parliament Darya Safai who claimed that Rushdie’s attacker used a fake driver’s license. “His fake identity was Hassan Mughniyah, a reminder of Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah official close to Iran’s IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani”, she tweeted.
#Rushdie ‘s attacker, Hadi Matar, used this fake driver’s license.
— Darya Safai MP (@SafaiDarya) August 13, 2022
His fake identity was “Hassan Mughniyah,” a reminder of Imad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah official close to Iran’s IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani. pic.twitter.com/n5VDCzTikK
According to the reports, Rushdie was attacked on August 12 when he was about to give a lecture at Chautauqua Institution in New York. As per eyewitnesses, a man stormed the stage and started punching and stabbing Rushdie when he was being introduced. The author fell to the floor, and the assailant was restrained.
It was reported that Salman Rushdie has been stabbed in his neck and airlifted to a hospital. In a press release, the New York State police said they are investigating the attack against Salman Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY.
“Rushdie suffered an apparent stab wound to the neck and was transported by helicopter to an area hospital. His condition is not yet known. The interviewer suffered a minor head injury,” the statement by the New York State Police read.
The arrested accused named Hadi Matar was born in California and had just relocated to New Jersey. According to the news report, Matar’s social media posts reveal that he is sympathetic to Shia radicalism. The official stated that no ties existed between the IRGC and Hadi Matar.
Rushdie who is under treatment started receiving threats after his book ‘The Satanic Verses’ which was banned in 1988 by a host of countries, including India. The book was banned over its content which Muslims consider ‘blasphemous’. A year later, Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini also issued a fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s death. A bounty was offered to anyone who kills Rushdie.
