Domestic Cleaners Pimlico 15th September 2013

Sushmita Banerjee, the author of "A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife" a memoir about living under the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, that was made into a major motion picture called "Escape from Taliban" in Bollywood, has been shot dead.

I read in the news on my way to work in the home cleaning service about what happened. Suspected Taliban gunmen arrived at her house, seized and blindfolded and bound her husband before they dragged her out and shot her about fifteen times.

In an interview she did once she spoke of the time she made it back to Kolkata in August 1995 "I still remember the day I stepped on Indian soil for the first time after I had left," the interview quotes her as saying. "It was raining outside. People were scurrying for shelter. But I didn't run. I just stood there and let the rain wash off my pain. I felt if I could bear so much in Afghanistan, I can surely bear my motherland's rain. I don't know how long I stood there, but I won't forget that day." I was an admirer of her humanitarian work and I know her community and a few of we, her fans, will sorely miss her.

My friend at work in the house cleaning service in Pimlico who also read the story told me that about four people have been detained on suspicion of her murder.