Several thousand Islamists took to the streets of Tunis yesterday to defend the Islamist-led government from popular demands for it to resign over the assassination of a secular opposition politician.

As Islamists and secular opponents staged rival protests over the future of Tunisia’s Ennahda government, the interior minister pointed the finger of suspicion at a hardline Islamist, saying the same gun had been used in Thursday’s killing as in an assassination earlier this year.

“The people want Ennahda again!” the Islamists chanted, rejecting demands for a new government of national unity.

Divisions between Islamists and their secular opponents have deepened since Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled in 2011 in the first of the Arab Spring revolutions.

In the second murder of a secular politician in Tunisia this year, Mohamed Brahmi, a member of the Arab nationalist Popular Front, was shot 14 times. Thousands of anti-government protesters also massed in the capital yesterday, while shops and banks closed their doors.

Malta has condemned the “shocking assassination” of Mohamed Brahmi, a member of the Opposition in Tunisia. The government said, “This act, which occurred on the 56th anniversary of the establishment of the Republic of Tunisia, strongly contradicts the spirit of such an important date.”

Malta said it remained confident that the transition process in Tunisia would not be derailed by such acts.