Russia regional TV chief killed: reports
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A well-known broadcaster and TV chief from Russia's restive North Caucasus was shot dead on Friday when unidentified gunmen opened fire on his car, Russian agencies reported on Friday.
Gadzhi Abashilov, aged 58, was the chairman of the Dagestan State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company and a former journalist who had presented his own television program until he took up his current post a year ago, Tass reported.
Abashilov died at the scene and his driver was injured after the assailants fired on his car outside a supermarket in the regional capital of Makhachkala, Tass news agency reported.
No other details into the killing were immediately available.
The Russian Prosecutor General's office said federal investigators would takeover the probe, Interfax reported.
Violence from neighboring Chechnya, where Moscow has fought two wars against insurgents since the nineties, has spilled over into Dagestan and other regions of the North Caucasus, with frequent shoot-outs between the security forces and separatists.
Abashilov's killing comes hours after the body of another television journalist, originally from Dagestan, was discovered in Moscow after he was strangled in his apartment.
More than a dozen journalists have been slain in contract-style killings in Russia since 2000. Many journalists appear to have been targeted for beatings and killings because of their attempts to investigate allegations of corruption.
(Reporting by Conor Sweeney; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
