A religious foundation in Iran has increased a reward for killing British author Salman Rushdie to 3.3 million dollars  from 2.8 million dollars in response to alleged insults to the Prophet Muhammad, according to newspaper reports.

The reports today in the hard-line Jomhoori Eslami daily and other newspapers appeared to be a reference to an anti-Islam film that sparked a series of protests across the Muslim world.

The report said that the 15 Khordad Foundation will pay the prize to whoever acts on the 1989 death fatwa issued by Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against the author of the novel The Satanic Verses, calling his book blasphemous.

The reward started at one million US dollars and is occasionally increased.

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