Bengaluru: Indian journalists and rights activists protested on Wednesday against the murder of an outspoken publisher of a weekly tabloid, amid growing concerns about freedom of the press at a time of rising nationalism and intolerance of dissent.

Gauri Lankesh, 55, the editor and publisher of the Kannada-language Gauri Lankesh Patrike newspaper, was shot dead on Tuesday by unidentified assailants near her home in the southern city of Bengaluru.

She had parked her car outside her gate and was walking to the main entrance of her home when the attackers fired at least seven rounds, killing her, police said. The motive was not known.

Lankesh was a fierce advocate of secularism and opposed hardline Hindu groups associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing, nationalist ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).