Swedish artist Lars Vilks together with two police officers was killed in a car crash near the southern town of Markaryd in Sweden on Sunday.
Vilks, 75, who had been living under police protection since the drawings depicting the Prophet Mohammad with the body of a dog were published, was traveling in a police vehicle that crashed with a truck.
“This is a very tragic incident. It is now important to all of us that we do everything we can to investigate what happened and what resulted in the crash,” Swedish police said in a statement on Monday.
“Initially, there is nothing that points to anyone else being involved.”
Muslims consider any depiction of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, to be offensive. After the publication of the cartoons depicting Muhammad by Vilks, the cartoonist had been living under round-the-clock police guard after threats against his life. He had a bounty put on his head and his house had been fire-bombed.
Vilks had rejected the allegations that his cartoons were intended to provoke Muslims. He maintained his cartoons were meant to challenge political correctness in the art world.
