MOSCOW, Aug 5 — A senior policeman who sparked an international outcry by shooting dead a prominent journalist in Russia’s volatile southern region of Ingushetia two years ago was himself shot and killed yesterday, officials said.

Ibragim Yevloyev, who was jailed for killing the editor of Ingushetia’s main opposition news website, was shot with an automatic weapon at a cafe in the city of Nazran, said Kaloi Akhilgov, a spokesman for Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.

State-run news agency RIA, citing a law enforcement source, said another law enforcement official who was injured in the attack later died.

Mainly Muslim Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya, is beset by almost daily clashes between police and Islamist insurgents. Russia’s poorest region, it is also regarded as a hotbed of corruption and organised crime.

Magomed Yevloyev, editor of ingushetiyaru.org and a prominent critic of former Ingush leader Murat Zyazikov, was shot dead in August 2008 by a pistol shot to the head after being detained at the region’s local airport.

His death sparked large protests, forcing the Kremlin to replace Zyazikov with Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.

Ibragim Yevloyev, who was not related to his victim, was released in March after serving three months of a two-year sentence for “involuntary manslaughter”.

The father of Magomed Yevloyev said he did not know who might have been behind yesterday’s shooting of his son’s killer, Ekho Moskvy radio reported.

Asked who might be to blame, he said: “Who knows... he had a lot of enemies.” — Reuters