The New York State Police have identified the suspect, who attacked Salman Rushdie, as Hadi Matar, from Fairview, New Jersey while the motive behind the act is still unknown.

Currently, Rushdie is on a ventilator following hours of surgery after being stabbed in the neck and torso at a lecture in New York on Friday.

He will likely lose one eye, his book agent Andrew Wylie said. “The news is not good,” he wrote in an email.

“The suspect has been identified as Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview, New Jersey. Earlier today, approx. at 10:47 am, the speaker Rushdie,75 and Henry Reese,73 had just arrived at the stage of the institution and shortly thereafter the suspect jumped out of the stage and attacked at least once in the neck and at least once in the abdomen,” State Police Troop Commander Major Eugene J. Staniszewski said in a news conference.

The police further said that several members of the institution and the audience quickly responded to the incident and took the suspect to the ground.

A doctor in the audience “immediately began first aid for Rushdie” after the stabbing, Major Staniszewski said.

The authorities didn`t reveal much information about the suspect. Salman Rushdie, who faced death threats over his book `The Satanic Verses`, was stabbed on stage in Western New York state on Friday.

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Rushdie, who was born into a Muslim Kashmiri family in Mumbai, before moving to the United Kingdom, has long faced death threats for his fourth novel – The Satanic Verses.

It was banned in many countries with large Muslim populations upon its 1988 publication.

(With inputs from agencies)