Yemeni police shot and killed a prominent separatist activist today while he inspected protests in the south organized to press for southern secession, a spokesman for his movement said.
The police had no immediate comment on the death of Khalid al-Junaid, a 42-year-old activist the separatists describe as a main organizer of the protests against the northern government.
Once-independent Southern Yemen was united with the north in 1990.
An attempt to break away from the union in 1994 was ruthlessly crushed by the army of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The south complains of negligence and the centralization of power in the impoverished country's north.
Al-Junaid was driving his car today in the southern city of Aden to inspect the response to calls for civil disobedience, the latest escalation after thousands of protesters camped out in the city's streets demanding secession.
In October, protesters took to the streets in the south to press their demands.
Radfan al-Dubeis, a spokesman for the separatist movement, said police tried to stop al-Junaid's car, then quickly fired at it and hit him in the chest.
The police transferred him to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead.
A picture of al-Junaid on his movement's Facebook page shows what appears to be a large bullet hole on the left side of his chest.
Al-Dubeis said al-Junaid was neither armed nor resisting police, calling the killing "premeditated" and urging an investigation.
Al-Junaid was released from prison late last month after a presidential pardon following his arrest on accusations he was behind the unrest in the south.
Yemen is embroiled in unrest.
Shiite rebels have challenged the central government's authority, taking control of the capital Sanaa and other provinces, demanding more say in running the country's affairs.
