CAIRO (AP) — A prominent Libyan activist who had become an international face of her strife-torn country's efforts to build a democracy was assassinated by gunmen who stormed her home in the restive eastern city of Benghazi shortly after casting her ballot in the country's parliamentary elections, police said Thursday.
The slaying of Salwa Bugaighis stunned residents of her home city, politicians, activists and diplomats, among whom she was well known. International rights groups called on authorities to investigate, something many Libyans believe won't be possible amid widespread fear of militias.
Bugaighis, a lawyer and rights activist, was at the forefront in the 2011 uprising against dictator Moammar Gadhafi. After his ouster, she became one of the most outspoken voices against militiamen and Islamic extremists who have run rampant in the country.
The identity of the gunmen was not immediately known. Islamic radical militias, however, have been blamed for frequent assassinations of secular activists, judges, moderate clerics, policemen and soldiers in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city.
Bugaighis was shot in the head and stabbed multiple times on Wednesday night, just hours after casting her ballot, police spokesman Ibrahim al-Sharaa said. She was rushed to a hospital where she died of her wounds, he said.
Her husband, who is a member of the Benghazi municipal council and was also at home at the time, has disappeared since the attack and is believed to have been abducted, al-Sharaa said.
Earlier in the day, Bugaighis had been speaking by phone from her home on a Libyan TV channel about fighting raging near her neighborhood, sparked when militants attacked army troops deploying to protect polling stations.
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