Moncef Marzouki,pesident of Tunisia cut short a visit to France and canceled a visit to Egypt scheduled for Thursday after the killing of a Shokri Belaid, which brought around 1,000 protesters onto the streets outside the Interior Ministry. Belaid was shot dead outside his home on Wednesday, in a killing the prime minister condemned as a political assassination and a strike against the "Arab Spring" revolution. Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said the identity of the killer of Shokri Belaid, a staunch secular opponent of the moderate Islamist-led government, was unknown. "The murder of Belaid is a political assassination and the assassination of the Tunisian revolution. By killing him they wanted to silence his voice," said Jebali, who heads the government led by the Ennahda party, which won Tunisia's first post-Arab Spring election in 2011. Belaid, who died in hospital after being shot in the capital Tunis, was a leading member of the opposition Popular Front party. "Shokri Belaid was killed today by four bullets to the head and chest ... doctors told us that he has died. This is a sad day for Tunisia," Ziad Lakhader, a leader of the Popular Front, told Reuters. Other party sources confirmed his death.