Remark on Salman Rushdie's attack taken out of context: Imran Khan

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the UK newspaper had taken his comments on author Salman Rushdie's attack "out of context".

Imran on Friday described the knife attack on the Indian-born novelist as "sad" and "terrible".

"Rushdie understood because he came from a Muslim family. He knows the love, respect, and reverence of a prophet that lives in our hearts. He knew that. So the anger I understood, but you can't justify what happened," the PTI chief told UK-based The Guardian.

However, PTI later clarified that what Imran Khan had said was taken out of context.

"The Guardian took my speech out of context. I refused to attend the seminar on inviting the cursed Salman Rushdie to India. In the interview, I explained the Islamic method of punishing the insolent Prophet. He referred to the Sialkot tragedy, and spoke of Rushdie in the same context," PTI tweeted.

Imran explained that he had refused to attend a seminar where Rushdie had been invited. "I gave the example of the Sialkot incident [...] spoke about Rushdie in the same context," Dawn quoted Imran as saying.

Hadi Matar, the man accused of stabbing renowned author Salman Rushdie on stage in New York state last week, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault.

Matar, 24, made the plea in a courtroom in Chautauqua County, New York, CNN reported. This comes after prosecutors said a grand jury had indicted him this week.

The suspect, who hails from New Jersey, allegedly stabbed the Indian-born-British author in western New York State last week during a lecture, praised Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini and admitted that he didn't think that the author would survive.

"When I heard he survived, I was surprised, I guess," Hadi Matar said as quoted by the New York Post.

The suspect was asked whether he was inspired by the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued a fatwa against Rushdie over his book "The Satanic Verses".

Matar replied, "I respect the ayatollah. I think he's a great person. That's as far as I will say about that," Matar said, noting he only "read like two pages" of Rushdie's controversial novel. "I read a couple of pages. I didn't read the whole thing cover to cover," he said.

Renowned author Rushdie, who faced death threats over his book 'The Satanic Verses', was stabbed on stage in Western New York state. The Booker prize-winning author was attacked as he was about to give a lecture in western New York state.

Rushdie has suffered years of death threats over his book 'The Satanic Verses' which was severely criticised by Islamic clerics.

( With inputs from ANI )

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