Deedat was walking towards the court when he was approached by another male who shot him once, the witnesses said.

"It is alleged a 65-year-old man and his wife were walking toward Verulam Family Court this morning at 08:30 when an unknown suspect opened fire, wounding the male victim on the head. He was rushed to hospital for medical attention. The suspect drove away in an unknown direction," said KZN police Colonel Thembeka Mbele.

The paramedics of director of Reaction Unit SA, Prem Balram, who arrived first at the destination, said that Deedat’s situation is critical.

Ahmed Hoosen Deedat was a South African writer and public speaker of Indian descent. He was best known as a Muslim missionary, who held numerous inter-religious public debates with evangelical Christians, as well as video lectures on Islam, Christianity, and the Bible. Deedat established the IPCI, an international Islamic missionary organisation, and wrote several widely distributed booklets on Islam and Christianity. He was awarded the King F aisal International Prize in 1986 for his fifty years of missionary work. He wrote and lectured in English.

On 8 August 2005, Ahmed Deedat died at his home on Trevennen Road in Verulam in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. He is buried at the Verulam cemetery.

ILKHA