Thousands of Tunisians rallied Wednesday night in the center of Tunis in front of the Interior ministry to protest the assasination of an opposition leader and outspoken critic of the Islamist-led government.
Chokri Belaid, a 48-year-old lawyer and leading member of a leftist alliance of parties known as the Popular Front, was gunned down as he left his home Wednesday in the first assassination in post-revolutionary Tunisia.
An interior ministry spokesman called the assassination a "terrorist act" and said the politician had been shot point-blank several times.
Belaid had been a fierce critic of Ennahda, the governing Islamist party.
The killing heightens tensions in the North African nation whose path from dictatorship to democracy has been seen as a model of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’.
With the fall of the country's secular dictatorship, hardline Islamist groups have flourished and there were a string of attacks by radical Muslims known as Salafis against arts, culture and people they deemed to be impious.
Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, a member of a secular party in the governing coalition, called the assassination a threat against all Tunisians.
"Chokri Belaid was murdered this very day knowing I was going to be speaking to you," he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. "This is a letter being sent to us that we will refuse to open. We reject that message and we will continue to unmask the enemies of the revolution."
Tunisia's Prime Minister was expected todissolve the Islamist-led government and form a national unity administration.
Hamadi Jebali "will deliver a speech to the nation tonight and will announce the formation of a new government of non-partisan figures and technocrats", one source said.