CAIRO: Egypt’s state prosecutor was killed in a powerful bombing that hit his convoy in Cairo on Monday following jihadist calls for attacks on the judiciary to avenge a crackdown on Islamists.

The health ministry and senior officials including Justice Minister Ahmed al-Zind said that Hisham Barakat had died in hospital several hours after the morning bombing in the upscale district of Heliopolis in east Cairo.

Barakat, 64, was the most senior government official killed since jihadists launched an insurgency following the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

His assassination will come as a blow to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who overthrew Morsi and won elections pledging to wipe out Islamist militants.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play