Tunisia’s prime minister, Hamadi Jebali will dissolve his Islamist-dominated government and form a temporary administration pending fresh elections, as the country’s political crisis deepens after the murder of a leading opposition figure.

The announcement came after the assassination on Wednesday morning of the leading opposition figure Chokri Belaid. He was shot dead outside his Tunis home hours after he had appeared on television to warn that a faction within the Islamist Nahda party was behind a recent spate of political violence. Many of Belaid’s supporters blamed Nahda for the killing and called on the interior minister to resign for failing to protect him despite repeated death threats.