Safwan Idris, the rector of an Islamic studies institute and a candidate for governor of the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, was assassinated in his house early Saturday, police and neighbors said.
Idris, 51, a vocal critic of the use of military violence to settle the separatist problem in Aceh, was visited by two men at his house in the Kopelma area of Banda Aceh at 6:45 am (2345 GMT), residents said.
One man went inside, three shots were fired, and the pair then fled on a motorcycle, they said.
Idris was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died.
"We still don't know who did it," deputy police chief, Senior Superintendent Teuku Ashikin told AFP.
Ashikin said Idris had allowed one man into the drawing room of his house, and that the two had talked briefly before the shots were fired.
He attributed the killing to "an unknown assailant."
A commander of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Ayah Muni, immediately blamed elements in the military for the assassination.
"This is the work of the Indonesian military. They must be held responsible for that incident," Muni told AFP, adding that he believed the motive was to create a situation in which the authorities would declare a civil emergency in Aceh.
"This incident was created by the military in order to implement a civil emergency," he said.
Muni said all GAM members would mourn Idris, whom he called "a true son of Aceh" and vowed that his men would conduct their own investigation to find the assassin.
"As we know that Safwan Idris has always been close to the people, all GAM members offer their condolences. This will be deeply felt as Aceh has lost one its true native sons," he said.
Popular and respected in Banda Aceh, where he headed the Institute of Islamic Studies Ar-Raniry, Idris had been appointed by former Indonesian president B.J. Habibie as a member of a committee set up to investigate violence in Aceh.
The shooting came a day after Jakarta postponed for a week talks in Switzerland on a possible extension of a violence-marred three-month truce in Aceh which ended September 2.
The truce, which reduced but did not halt the violence in the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra Island, is now under a temporary extension.
Sympathy for the GAM, which has been fighting for an independent Islamic state since 1976, has grown as a result of a 10-year military campaign to crush the separatists.
Resentment is also high because of the siphoning off by the central government of the province's natural resources.
Jakarta has said it will not tolerate an independent Aceh, and has offered autonomy instead. The rebels say that despite entering the truce, they will not abandon their goal of independence -- BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP)
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