By Chioma Iruke
The cartoonist of controversial portrait of Prophet Mohammed, Lars Vilks has died at the age of 75.
Vilks who has been under police protection since 2007 when he depicted the Islam Prophet with a dog body, died in a road accident that happened on Sunday evening.
A police officer who confirmed Vilk’s death to newsmen said: “This is being investigated like any other road accident. Because two policemen were involved, an investigation has been assigned to a special section of the prosecutor’s office.”
It was revealed that two police officers died alongside the cartoonist while they were travelling near the small town Markaryd when the car Vilks was travelling in crashed into an oncoming truck.
Both vehicles caught fire and the truck driver was hospitalized, according to the police.
“The person we were protecting and two colleagues died in this inconceivable and terribly sad tragedy,” said Regional Police Head Carina Persson,” the police statement read.
Vilks’s artwork was condemned by several persons who consider his depictions of the Muslim prophet deeply offensive or blasphemous. The depiction also sparked diplomatic friction, with Sweden’s then Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt meeting ambassadors from several Muslim countries to ease tensions.
In 2015, Vilks survived a gun attack at a free-speech conference in Copenhagen that left a Danish film director dead.
