A student activist has died after being hacked and shot as he was walking with a friend in the capital of Bangladesh.

Police in Dhaka said at least three men riding on a single motorbike carried out the killing on Wednesday night.

No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Officers suspect 28-year-old Nazimuddin Samad was targeted for his outspoken atheism in the Muslim majority country, and for supporting a 2013 movement to demand capital punishment for war crimes involving the country's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

The killing follows a string of similar attacks last year, when at least five secular bloggers and publishers were killed, allegedly by radical Islamists.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.