A political officer of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), Bate Urgessa, has been shot dead and his body was found lying at the side of a road in his hometown, Meki, a town in the east Showa zone of the Oromia region.

A close friend told BBC Amharic that Bate was killed after being moved out of his hotel room at midnight on Tuesday.

The OLF condemned the “brutal murder” of Bate and demanded “all human rights organizations and peace-loving people to undertake an immediate neutral and impartial investigation.”

“The unwarranted and extrajudicial killing of conscious and active Oromo political and cultural figures has been a systematic and irresponsible act of silencing the Oromo throughout years and decades,” the statement said.

Bate was arrested in February in Addis Ababa while being interviewed by French journalist Antoine Galindo at Skylight Hotel and two weeks later released on a hundred thousand birr bail.

It is unclear who is responsible for the killing. Phone lines have been severed in the town, making communication challenging.

Daniel Bekele, head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, called for “a prompt, impartial and full investigation by both the Oromia regional and Ethiopian federal authorities to hold perpetrators to account.”

Oromia’s regional government condemned Bate’s killing as “unacceptable” and denied any involvement. In a statement Wednesday, it said it was also committed to an investigation.

A close friend of Bate informed the BBC that the politician had traveled to Mekki to visit his papaya farm near the town. The friend added that after news of Bete’s death, a father of four, reached his family, family members headed to Meki, the town where the murder took place, this morning.