Indian writer Sushmita Banerjee shot dead
The US has been boasting for some time that it restored normalcy in Afghanistan and there is now democratically elected Government which has full control on the administration. But the broad-day light killing of Indian author Sushmita Banerjee (49) on September 6, by Taliban shows the terrorists still hold the key and they are free to do what they wish.
Sushmita has reportedly been killed for her memoir about her dramatic escape from Taliban. She was killed outside her home in Paktika province, close to the Pakistan border. Her bullet-riddled body was found near a madrasa on the outskirts of Sharan city. She was shot 20 times and some of her hair had been ripped off by the Taliban. The masked men had tied up the writer and her Afghan husband, local businessman Jaanbaz Khan, before executing her.
Sushmita, who was also known as Sayed Kamala, was working as a health worker in the province and had been filming the lives of local women as part of her work. “Taliban arrived at her home in the provincial capital, Kharana, tied up her husband and other members of the family, took her out and shot her” said the police.
Sushmita went to Afghanistan in 1989 after marrying to Afghan businessman Jaanbaz Khan, whom she met in Calcutta. Her book Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife, which is an account of her escape from the Taliban two decades ago, was made into a Bollywood film in 2003. What surprises us all is the fact that India is still silent on this matter and it put its faith in the Afghan police which recently arrested six terrorists for shooting the Indian writer.The terrorists belong to Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate with links to al-Qaida, and were arrested in Sharan, the capital of Paktika province on September 9. There are also reports that the plot to kill the Indian writer was hatched in Pakistan and the Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban and Haqqoni network were involved. —Bureau Report
