Afghan militants kill Sushmita Banerjee, author whose life inspired Escape From Taliban

Sushmita Banerjee, an Indian woman author who wrote a popular memoir - A Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife – about her escape from the Taliban has been shot dead inAfghanistan‘s Paktika province by suspected Taliban militants, police said Thursday. Married to Afghan businessman Jaanbaz Khan, Banerjee, 49, was killed outside her home in southeastern Paktika province. The book about her dramatic escape in 1995 became a bestseller in India and was made into a Bollywood film, Escape From Taliban, in 2003. Starring Bollywood actor Manisha Koirala, the film described itself as a “story of a woman who dares Taliban”.A film, Escape From Taliban, was based on her life and it starred Bollywood beauty Manisha Koirala

Banerjee had recently moved back to Afghanistan to live with her husband. According to BBC, she was known as Sayed Kamala.

She was well-known in India for her book, which recounted her life in Afghanistan with her husband and her escape.

According to a report in the Afghanistan Times, gunmen kidnapped the woman, Sahib Kamala, Wedneday night from the Sray Kala area on the outskirts of Sharan, the provincial capital of Paktika. She was found dead on Thursday morning, said Police chief Brig Gen Daulat Khan Zadran. He said an investigation into the incident had been opened, but the killers remained at large.