Indian author Sushmita Banerjee poses at a press conference
announcing the launch of the movie "Escape From Taliban" in
2002.  Indian author Sushmita Banerjee poses at a press
conference announcing the launch of the movie Escape From
Talibanin 2002. Photo: AFP  Kabul: The author of a popular
memoir of life under the Taliban that was made into a major
Bollywood movie was shot dead early on Thursday morning, 18
years after militant leaders sentenced her to death after she
refused to wear a burqa in public.  Her body was riddled with 25
bullets and some of her hair had been ripped from her head,
police said.  Sushmita Banerjee, who wrote about her experiences
as an Indian woman married to an Afghan in her first book,
Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife, was abducted by masked men just after
midnight. The attackers broke into the couple's home in the
eastern province of Paktika, tied both up, but then left
Banerjee's husband behind when they took her away.  ‘‘Her body
was dumped at a madrassah with some of her hair ripped