WASHINGTON: Transit officials in Washington have temporarily suspended all issue-oriented advertisements on the region's rail and bus system.

The move comes as the agency was asked to consider an ad with a provocative cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's board of directors voted Thursday to suspend issue-oriented advertisements until the end of the year.

The agency did not say the move was being made in response to any particular ad.

However, the head of the group behind the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) ad confirmed Thursday that the group had submitted an ad with the cartoon about two weeks ago.

The cartoon was the winner of the group's Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, earlier this month.

Read: Texas police shoot dead two gunmen at Prophet (PBUH) caricature exhibit

Two would-be terrorists ambushed officers outside the event and were killed.

Earlier in January this year, heavily armed men shouting religious slogans stormed the headquarters of a satirical weekly in Paris, killing 12 people in cold blood in the worst attack in France in decades.

Also read: Editor among 12 killed in attack on Paris weekly

Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly) is well known for courting controversy with satirical attacks on political and religious leaders.