The British newspaper, Guardian, said that it stood by its story after former prime minister Imran Khan stated that the newspaper took his comments regarding Salman Rushdie ‘out of context’, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday.
The Guardian’s world affairs editor Julian Borger tweeted on Saturday: “We did not misquote Imran Khan. We stand absolutely by our reporting of the interview. Khan himself is not saying we misquoted him, only that we took his remarks out of context, but we provided the context, as you can see in the story.”
In his interview with the British newspaper, former prime minister Imran Khan condemned the attack on Salman Rushdie, describing it as “terrible” and “sad”, and saying that while the anger of the Islamic world at Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses was understandable, it could not justify the assault.
But later, in a statement issued on PTI’s official Twitter account on Saturday, the ex-PM said his statement was taken out of context. In the tweet, Mr Khan said: “The Guardian took my speech out of context. I refused to attend a seminar in India in which the cursed Salman Rushdie was invited. In the interview, I explained the Islamic method of punishing the blasphemers of the Prophet (PBUH). I referred to the Sialkot tragedy, and spoke of Rushdie in the same context.”