Swedish 'Mohammed' cartoonist Lars Vilks dies in a car crash

Swedish cartoonist, Lars Vilks whose sketching of Prophet Mohammed’s head on a dog’s body fueled controversy in 2007, died today in a traffic accident.

the 75-year-old artist was reportedly on a civilian police car, where he was found dead along with two police officers.

The accident was due a to the collision of the car with a truck near the town of Markayrd in southern Sweden.

“Initially, there is nothing that points to anyone else being involved.” Swedish police told Reuters.

Vilks started living under police protection after his series of drawings that began in 2007, which were declined by several Swedish art galleries in the fears of violence.

On 18 August 2007, regional newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published one of the drawings under a theme of censorship and freedom of religion.

The publication grabbed the attention of Muslims on an international level, leading to protests in Europe and official condemnations from the inert-governmental Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and several governments including Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan.

Following the publication, numerous death threats targeted Vilks while two men tried to burn down his house. On 15 September, the Islamic state put a bounty of at least $100,000 on the head Vilk’s and $50,000 on the editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allhenda, Ulf Johansson.

A police spokesperson told news agency AFP, that there was no suspicion of foul play adding that “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.”

Visual representation of the prophet is regarded as blasphemous. Generally, in the Islamic law any depiction of the prophet, even favourable is considered prohibited.

Prior the drawings of 2007, Vilks was most famous for erecting a sculpture made of driftwood in a reserved nature located in southern Sweden without permission which took him to court.