Chronology of the Rushdie Affair
February 12, 1989
At least six people are killed in Pakistan in shooting between police and gunmen in a crowd protesting at sale of the novel in the United States.
February 14, 1989
Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calls on all Moslems to kill Rushdie for blasphemy against Islam -- the "fatwa".
February 24, 1989
Twelve people are killed and 17 wounded in the Indian city of Bombay when police open fire to prevent a crowd of 10,000 marching on the British High Commission (embassy). In following weeks at least four people are killed and hundreds injured in other protests across India.
March 29, 1989
The spiritual leader of Belgium's Muslims, Saudi-born Abdullah Al Ahdal, and his deputy, Salim Bahri, from Tunisia, are shot dead in a Brussels mosque after receiving threats related to Rushdie's novel.
May 27, 1989
Pro-Iranian and pro-Iraqi factions clash when 30,000 Moslems mass outside British parliament.
September 14, 1989
Four bombs planted outside bookshops in Britain owned by Penguin, publisher of The Satanic Verses.
July 3, 1991
Ettore Capriolo, 61, Italian translator of The Satanic Verses, is beaten up and attacked with a knife in his Milan flat by a man who says he is Iranian.
July 12, 1991
Japanese scholar Hitoshi Igarashi, who translated the novel, is stabbed to death in Tokyo.
July 4, 1993
Thirty-seven people die in rioting by Muslim fundamentalists in the Turkish town of Sivas.
October 11, 1993
William Nygaard, director of the book's Norwegian publishers, is shot three times and seriously wounded outside his Oslo home.
September 7, 1995
After six years under police protection, Rushdie appears in London in his first pre-announced public appearance since the fatwa was issued.
February 12, 1997
Eight years after it first offered a reward, the Iranian revolutionary 15th Khordad Foundation increases the bounty on Rushdie's head to $2.5 million.
September 22, 1998
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami says the Rushdie affair is "completely finished".
September 24, 1998
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi tells British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook at the United Nations in New York that Iran will take no action to threaten Rushdie's life, nor encourage anybody else to do so. The countries agree to upgrade diplomatic relations. Rushdie says: "It means everything, it means freedom."
September 28, 1998
Iranian media say three Iranian clerics have called on Islamic followers to kill Rushdie under the death edict the Iranian government disavowed.
October 4, 1998
Some 160 members of the Iranian parliament say death decree against Rushdie remains valid.
October 7, 1998
Iran says nothing has changed in its position over the Rushdie row with Britain.
October 10, 1998
A hardline Iranian student group sets a one billion rial ($333,000) bounty on the head of Rushdie.
October 12, 1998
Iranian religious foundation raises its $2.5 million bounty by $300,000.
October 18, 1998
International committees that campaigned on behalf of Rushdie say they will disband.
January 4, 1999
During a visit to Mexico Rushdie says he still does not lead a normal life even after the lifting of the edict.
February 4, 1999
BBC first reports that Rushdie is granted a visa to visit his homeland, India. Syed Ahmad Bukhari, an Indian Moslem leader, warned of dire consequences if author Salman Rushdie used a newly granted visa to visit the country of his birth for the first time since the banning of his book "The Satanic Verses". He also added: "Indian Moslems be prepared for any sacrifice... from the time he steps on Indian soil, we will follow him everywhere. If we have to give our lives, we are ready,"
February 6, 1999
The conservative Iranian Tehran Times said that British author Salman Rushdie was likely to be assassinated during a forthcoming visit to India. "If the visit of this most hated blasphemous and disgraceful person takes place, there is every possibility that it will be his last foreign visit."
February 14, 1999
On the 10th anniversary of the edict against British writer Salman Rushdie, an Iranian foundation that has put a price on his head said that it remained valid and would be carried out. "The idea of Rushdie's annihilation is still very much alive and seeks only the right moment," Ayatollah Hassan Saneii said in a statement published in the hard-line Jomhuri Islami daily.
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