Author Salman Rushdie, who had spent years in hiding after and Iranian Fatwa ordered to get him killed, was on ventilator and could potentially lose an eye, following a stabbing attack at a literary event in New York on Friday.
The British author of "The Satanic Verses", which sparked fury among some Muslims who believed it was blasphemous, had to be airlifted to hospital for emergency surgery following the attack.
His agent said in a statement the news is not good and Salman will likely lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged and further added that Mr Rushdie could not speak.
Carl LeVan, an American University politics professor attending the literary event, told AFP that the assailant had rushed onto the stage where Rushdie was seated and stabbed him repeatedly and viciously.
New York state police identified the suspected attacker as Hadi Matar, 24-year-old from Fairfield, New Jersey. The attack took place at the Chautauqua Institution, which hosts arts programmes in a tranquil lakeside community 110 km south of Buffalo city.
Mr Rushdie, 75, came in to 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.
While his 1988 book "The Satanic Verses" transformed his life when Iran's first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious decree, ordering his killing. The novel was considered by some Muslims as disrespectful of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.
Global leaders voiced anger over the attack. And were 'appalled' and sent thoughts to Rushdie's loved ones.