TUNIS: Following the killing of prominent Tunisian opposition politician Shokri Belaid as he was leaving his home on Wednesday morning, mass protests have erupted in the capital and in several cities across the country.
The assassination has also reportedly prompted Tunisian opposition to announce suspension of its membership in the constituent assembly. In addition, the opposition has also declared a general strike on Chokri Belaid funeral.
Belaid, leader of the Unified Democratic Nationalist party, was shot outside his home in Tunis on Wednesday morning and died in hospital shortly after.
After his killing, President Moncef Marzouki cut short a visit to France and canceled a trip to Egypt scheduled for Thursday.
The prime minister, Hamadi Jebali, who heads the Ennahda party-led government, which won Tunisia’s first post-Arab spring election in 2011, said “The murder of Belaid is a political assassination and the assassination of the Tunisian revolution. By killing him they wanted to silence his voice.”
The offices of Tunisia’s ruling Islamist Ennahda party have been attacked as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the capital as well as several other Tunisian towns to voice their anger at what they perceived to be a crime committed by Islamists in the face of secular opposition.
DND
