A Swedish artist who infamously drew blasphemous images of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has died in a horrific traffic accident.
Lars Vilks, 75, was traveling in the car with two police protection officers on Sunday in Markaryd when it was involved in an accident with a truck. All three have reportedly died and the truck driver was injured. The cause of the accident is now under investigation.
The national police chief, Anders Thornberg, said: “It is with dismay and great sadness that I received the news that our two colleagues and our security person died this afternoon. My thoughts go to relatives, families, friends and co-workers.”
Stefan Sintéus, the head of the regional investigation unit responsible for personal protection in the region, said: “This is an extremely tragic event. Now it is important for all of us that we do everything we can to find out what happened at the site and what caused the collision.”
Vilks was placed under police protection following multiple death threats over his 2007 cartoon which depicted the Prophet (pbuh) with a dog’s body.
In 2015, Vilks attended a “free speech” event at a café in Copenhagen which was targeted by a gunman who opened fire, killing a film director and wounding three police officers. The gunman then went to a synagogue and killed a volunteer guard.
Vilks later said he believed he was the intended target of the shooting.
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In 2010, two men tried to burn down his house in southern Sweden. Last year, a woman from Pennsylvania pleaded guilty in a plot to try to kill him.
