Salman Rushdie to miss Indian literary festival over death threat

Jan 20, 2012, 9:41 GMT

New Delhi - Author Salman Rushdie said Friday he would not be attending a literary festival in the Indian city of Jaipur as he had been informed by intelligence agencies that there were threats to his life, news reports said.

In an email to the organisers of the festival, Rushdie said it would be irresponsible of him towards his family and the other participants if he attended the festival, Times Now television reported.

'I have been informed by Intelligence Bureau sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld were coming ... to eliminate me ... I will therefore not travel as planned,' Rushdie said in a statement emailed to the organisers, IANS news agency reported

Rushdie was initially scheduled to attend the opening day of the five-day festival, the biggest in South Asia, but a controversy arose after a prominent Muslim seminary opposed his participation.

In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie to be killed over his book the Satanic Verses, which led the author to spend more than a decade underground.