MOSCOW — A prominent journalist who had accused local authorities of persecuting and kidnapping Muslims was shot dead in an ambush in the violent Russian republic of Dagestan on Tuesday, police officials said.

The journalist, Akhmednabi Akhmednabiyev, 53, a deputy editor of the independent daily newspaper Novoye Delo, had already survived a January assassination attempt at the same spot just outside the capital, Makhachkala.

“They were waiting for him at an intersection just 50 meters from his house,” said Fatina Ubaidatova, a spokeswoman for the local police, adding that they did not have any suspects. “They fired several shots into the car and he was hit in the head. He died there.”

The killing is the latest in a steady tide of attacks on journalists in Dagestan, which is facing a low-level Islamic insurgency. According to data from the Russian Union of Journalists, Mr. Akhmednabiyev is the 17th journalist to be killed or die under suspicious circumstances in Dagestan since 1993.