Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who drew a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), was killed in a road accident.
The BBC quoted local media as saying on Monday (October 4th).
The BBC reports that Lars Vilks was driving in a police car near the southern Swedish town of Markard. At this time the car collided with a truck. Cartoonist Vilks and two police officers were killed and the truck driver was injured.
Vilks, 65, lived and worked under police protection after receiving death threats for drawing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The release of the cartoon in 2008 angered many devout Muslims. They consider the visual presentation of the Prophet (PBUH) as an insult to Islam.
The cartoon by Lars Vilks was published a year after a Danish newspaper published a cartoon of the Prophet (PBUH).
Meanwhile, police did not reveal the identities of those killed in the incident on Sunday (October 3) local time. However, a friend of Vilks reported his death to a local newspaper.
A police statement said it was not immediately clear how the car and truck carrying the cartoonist Vilks collided. However, the initial idea of the police is that no one else was involved in the incident.
Following the release of the Vilks cartoon, the then Prime Minister of Sweden, Frederick Reinfeldt, had to sit down with the ambassadors of 22 Muslim countries to deal with the situation.
Shortly after the meeting, al-Qaeda announced a $100,000 reward for information leading to the assassination of Vilks.
Cartoonist Vilks took part in a debate on freedom of speech in 2015 in Copenhagen, Denmark. There are gun attacks. At the time, Vilks said, he was probably the target of the attack. A film director was killed in the attack.
