Saif Ali Khan was attacked on January 16 by an intruder during an attempted robbery at his residence. The actor was stabbed six times in the back and had to undergo two major surgeries to remove a three-inch knife blade from his spine. While many expressed their support, some speculated about the authenticity of the incident.
Recently, Saif clarified what happened, revealing that he fought the armed intruder alone until his house help intervened. He admitted that if the attacker had inflicted a more severe injury to his neck or spine, he could have been left paralysed.
Saif Ali Khan recalls his brutal attack
In an interaction with The Times of India, Saif recalled that he and Kareena were asleep when, around 2 a.m., a house help informed them that an intruder had entered Jeh’s room and was demanding money. Describing the masked intruder, he said, "I saw this guy holding (what I thought were) two sticks over Jeh’s bed – it was actually a hexa blade."
Saif instinctively grabbed the intruder and pulled him down, but the attacker retaliated by stabbing him in the back and neck. Due to the adrenaline rush, he initially did not realise he was being stabbed. He shared, "I couldn’t handle it after a while as there were two knives in action. I was praying that someone could get this guy off me at this point."
At that moment, his house help, Geeta, intervened and managed to pull the intruder away, allowing both of them to "roll away" from the room. Saif and others locked the intruder inside Jeh’s room, but he escaped through the same drainpipe he had used to enter. Meanwhile, Kareena took Jeh to Taimur’s room for safety.
Why Saif took an auto to the hospital
With no driver available, Saif rushed to the hospital in an auto-rickshaw, accompanied by Taimur and another house help, Hari. Taimur insisted on going along and remained composed despite seeing his father covered in blood. The young boy even asked, "Are you going to die?" To which Saif replied, "No."
After reaching the hospital, doctors informed Saif that "three-four inches of the knife has gone in his shoulder blade and has worked its way right to the bloody spinal cord."
Saif described the injury as a "massive stab" that had nicked the cover of his spinal cord. He experienced numbness in his leg due to spinal fluid leakage and stated, "That's how close it came: Just one more millimetre and we'd be talking paralysis."
Saif on his near-death experience and recovery
He underwent a six-hour-long surgery, the longest of his life. Though he now has "30 of the most awful scars" from the attack, he considers it a miracle that his crucial veins and arteries were not damaged. He said, "I don't understand how he missed my carotid artery and jugular vein… it's not possible to cut somebody's neck the way my neck is cut, and not kill them."
Despite the traumatic experience, Saif described his recovery as “incredible and pain-free,” with only muscular aches.