Scotland Yard investigate threat made to JK Rowling over tweet supporting Salman Rushdie

Scotland's police on Sunday stated that they are investigating the death threats directed at the Harry Potter author JK Rowling after she posted a sympathetic message for The Satanic Verses novelist Salman Rushdie who was stabbed in a knife assault during a literary event in New York. Rowling had received a death threat from one of the Twitter users after she labelled the knife assault on Rushdie as 'horrifying news'. The acclaimed writer said that she felt "very sick" after hearing the news and hoped the novelist would "be OK." "Don't worry. You are next," read a tweet posted by an unidentified user under her post. Rowling shared screenshots of the message on her social media account and immediately got the police involved. 

Rowling said: "To all sending supportive messages: thank you police are involved (were already involved on other threats)."

Police say 'received a report of an online threat'

A spokeswoman for Scotland's police confirmed that they were probing the matter.  "We have received a report of an online threat being made and officers are carrying out enquiries," she said. Rushdie, 75, was stabbed multiple times as took the stage to deliver a lecture on artistic freedom in western New York. The Indian-born writer had a bounty on his head since his 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" from Iran over blasphemy. After he was attacked, Rushdie was rushed to a local hospital in a crtiical health condition. He was likely to lose an eye, had nerve damage in his arm and had sustained a wound to his liver. He was, although, taken off a ventilator earlier yesterday and was able to talk, his agent Andrew Wylie informed. 

The man who stabbed The Satanic Verses author was identified as Hadi Matar, 24, from New Jersey. An attorney for Matar entered a not-guilty plea on charges of attempted murder and assault on his behalf during an arraignment hearing. Matar appeared in court wearing a black and white jumpsuit and a white face mask. His hands were cuffed in front of him. India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, among many other world leaders and lawmakers, authors and officials reacted to the shocking news, saying that he heard about the attack on Salman Rushdie. Lost for words, Jaishankar only said that this is something that "the whole world has noticed and the whole world has reacted to such an attack."