Secular Bangladeshi writer murdered in the street

New Delhi (CNN)   Machete-wielding attackers struck in the capital of Bangladesh Wednesday night, killing 26-year-old secular writer Nazimuddin Samad.

Samad, described by Bangladesh police as a masters student at Jagannath University, is the sixth secularist writer or publisher to have been murdered in Dhaka in the last 16 months. Police called the murder a pre-planned attack.

"He was on his way back home from his evening classes when he was circled by a group of three to four people," Senior Assistant Police Commissioner Nurul Amin of the Dhaka Police, told CNN.

"First the attackers hacked Samad with machetes, then shot him."

Police say the attackers then fled the scene on motorcycle. No arrests have yet been made.

Bloody repression

The murder is certain to add to fears among intellectuals and writers who have dared to challenge religious thought in Bangladesh, a majority Muslim country with a sizable Hindu religious minority.

The constitution in Bangladesh defines Islam as the state religion. But it also includes a clause promising to defend the "principle of secularism."

Imran Sarker, who leads a blogging and online activist network in Bangladesh, described Samad as a "very active secular activist."

"He was very vocal on issues of religious fundamentalism, war crimes, minority issues, corruption and injustice against women," Sarker told CNN.

"He used to regularly post notes on Facebook expressing his views."

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Tributes

Friends and supporters took to social media to express their grief, and tributes for, the young writer.

"Rest in Power, Nazimuddin Samad," one Facebook post said. "There is no end to this brutality." Victim had 'gone into hiding'

"This is terribly shocking," said Gulam Rabbi Chowdhury, a childhood friend and former high school classmate of Samad. Chowdhury said Samad went into hiding for several months last year because he feared for his life.

Mukto Mona posted excerpts of an exchange between a writer who expressed concern for Samad's safety.

"I am also scared... scared of getting killed," Samad responded in writing, according to a post published on Mukto Mona.

"But what else can I do? It's better to die rather than living by keeping my head down."

Mukto Mona's founder, a US-based Bangladeshi writer named Avijit Roy, was murdered by machete wielding attackers outside an annual book fair in Dhaka in February 2015.

Press freedoms groups have been sounding the alarm about the campaign of violence against writers in Bangladesh.

"Bangladesh has been ravaged by a spate of bloody attacks on bloggers and other writers who espouse secular viewpoints," said Karin Deutsch Karlekar, director of Freedom of Expression Programs at PEN America.

The group urged the US government and other countries to provide shelter to writers at risk of being attacked.