Dhaka, Jun 12 (IANS): A Bangladeshi writer was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Munshiganj district, police said.

Shahzahan Bachchu, owner of Bishakha Prokashoni, was killed on Monday by four persons on two motorcycles at his ancestral village of Kakaldi, reports bdnews24.

Known as a free-thinking writer, the 55-year-old former general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh's Munshiganj district unit died on the spot.

Bachchu's daughter Durba Zahan said in a Facebook post that his father was shot twice.

Deaths of secular writers, bloggers and online activists in attacks by suspected Islamist militants shook Bangladesh for months after the murder of Avijit Roy in Dhaka on February 26, 2015.

Avijit's publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan, who ran Jagriti Prokashoni, was also hacked to death in October the same year.

Militant groups claimed responsibilty for most of these attacks. The motive behind the Monday killing was not immediately clear.