'Pakistani Taliban militants involved in Indian author's killing'

Three militants from Pakistani Taliban were involved in the killing of Indian author Sushmita Banerjee in Afghanistan's Paktika province last week, the interrogation of the people arrested in the case has revealed.

According to sources, the four people arrested on Wednesday in Afghanistan as well as the two others arrested earlier revealed during their interrogation that three militants from Pakistan Taliban and belonging to Punjab province were involved in the killing of the well-known Indian author.

The plan was hatched in Pakistan and the three militants worked with Akbar Musafir, the local commander of the Afghan Taliban in Paktika, where it is also part of the Haqqani network. The provincial authorities have released the information to the press Thursday, said an official source in New Delhi.

Banerjee, 49, was dragged out of her home and shot dead by suspected Taliban gunmen in Sharan city of Paktika on Sep 5.

Banerjee had defied her family to marry Afghan businessman Jaanbaz Khan. In 1998, she wrote the bestselling memoir "Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou (A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife)", offering a vivid description of the suffering of women under the Taliban.