Investigate a death threat to JK Rowling for her support of Salman Rushdie: “You are next”

British police investigate a death threat against the author of the Harry Potter saga, JK Rowling, after a tweet in support of Salman Rushdie, who was stabbed in the United States. The threat was born through a conversation thread on the social network Twitter, where an alleged Pakistani user wrote “don’t worry, you are next”.

Rowling, 57, reacted on Twitter after learning of Rushdie’s aggression, wishing her colleague’s health improved and saying she was “fed up” with this kind of aggression.

A user, who on his social profile describes himself as a student and political activist from Karachi, Pakistan, replied: “Don’t worry, you are next“.

Although, after a few minutes, the message was deleted by the young Pakistani, Rowling posted a screenshot questioning Twitter about possible violations of its rules.

The author of the Harry Potter series tagged the message in a post and asked himself “Any chance of support?”.

The writer’s message revolutionized the networks. In a few hours he had more than 95 thousand likesit has been retweeted (shared) more than 21,000 times and generated just over 5,000 comments.

After the impact, Rowling updated the situation: “To all who are sending messages of support: thank you. The police involved (they were already involved in other threats)”, alluding to other previous intimidations suffered by the narrator, who by years he is criticized by groups advocating transgender rights for divulging alleged transphobic comments.

“We have received information about a network threat and our agents are investigating“, a spokeswoman for the Scottish police, where the author lives, said this Sunday after the threat made by the user of alleged Pakistani origin.

Rowling is among the authors and personalities who expressed disbelief after Rushdie was stabbed to death on stage in upstate New York by a 24-year-old of Lebanese descent with extremist sympathies.

Even the novelist Stephen King He joined the writers who were shocked by the attack on Rushdie, which received up to 15 stab wounds. “I hope Salman Rushdie is well,” King said of his colleague who was admitted to the hospital. “What kind of person stabs a writer, anyway?” he added in a tweet.

The attack of the Rushdie

Rushdie, who was stabbed on Friday, lives under a death sentence issued in 1989 by the then Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who issued a religious decree (fatwa) ordering Muslims to kill him after the book was published. . “The Satanic Verses”, which he considered blasphemous.

The attacked writer was about to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York last Friday when the attack took place.

Since then, Rushdie has been powered by a fan and may lose an eye. He also sustained severe injuries to his arm and liver.

New York police identified the suspected attacker as Hadi Matar, 24, of Fairview, New Jersey, who has just pleaded “not guilty” to the attack.