Dhaka: A prominent Bangladeshi writer and publisher was dragged out of a shop and shot dead by unidentified attackers in central Bangladesh, ending a lull in the killings of secular bloggers and activists.

Shahzahan Bachchu, 60, an outspoken proponent of secular principles and owner of the Bishaka Prokashoni publishing house that specialises in publishing poetry, was gunned down in his ancestral village of Kakaldi in Munshiganj district on Monday evening by five men.

Bachchu had gone to meet friends at a pharmacy shop near his home before iftar, when the five attackers on two motorcycles blasted a crude bomb outside the pharmacy, creating panic, the Dhaka Tribune reported. They then dragged Shahzahan out of the shop and shot him, a senior superintendent of police was quoted as saying by the daily.

Although no group has claimed responsibility, police officials from the counter-terrorism department are investigating the murder as a possible targeted attack by extremists.

Bachchu had received threats from extremist groups because of his outspoken support for secularism.

Bachchu was a former district general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh and was known as a free-thinking writer. His publishing house is based in Dhaka's Banglabazar area.

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

Avijit's publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan was also hacked to death on October 31 the same year.

Militant groups claimed responsibility for most of these attacks and the police arrested many radicals in connection with the attacks.

14 die in landslides

At least 14 people were killed and several were missing on Tuesday as torrential rains triggered landslides near camps housing over one million Rohingya refugees in southeast Bangladesh.

The landslides triggered by heavy rains washed away several homes and shelters in the districts of Cox's Bazar and Rangamati - both bordering Myanmar from where some 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled into the country due to a military crackdown.

Heavy rains have caused severe structural damage to camps. So far, more than 9,000 have been affected and the number is expected to rise as the monsoon rains. PTI