British author Salman Rushdie on Sunday accused Indian police of making up an underworld plot to assassinate him that forced him to pull out of a literary festival this weekend. Rushdie withdrew from the event in Jaipur, the state capital of Rajasthan, after being warned by Indian officials that paid gunmen were heading to the city to kill him for his writing that is alleged to insult Muslims.
But Rushdie said that he now believed the supposed plot - apparently undertaken by Mumbai criminal gangs - had been invented to keep him away from the festival and to avoid controversy.
"I've investigated, & believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry," Rushdie said on Twitter after newspaper reports that Rajasthan police had concocted the death threat. Rushdie's 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses", which is banned in India, is seen by many Muslims worldwide as a blasphemous work that insults their religion. The author, who was born in Mumbai, spent a decade in hiding after Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa in 1989 calling for his death over the novel.
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