Renowned author Salman Rushdie is currently on a ventilator and is likely to lose an eye after he underwent surgery following an attack at a literary event in New York. Rushdie, who received death threats from Iran due to his book 'The Satanic Verses', was "stabbed" at least once in the neck and once in the abdomen onstage at a lecture in western New York state on Friday morning.

Rushdie's agent, Andrew Wylie, sent an update on his condition shortly before 7 pm on Friday, saying the author was on a ventilator and cannot speak, New York Times reported. "The news is not good," he said adding "Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed, and his liver was stabbed and damaged." Rushdie, an Indian-born-British writer, faced death threats over his book 'The Satanic Verses' which was released in 1988. And after 30 years of a fatwa, Rushdie was attacked.