“We will follow this case with laser-like precision because this is something extremely disturbing,” said the Official Spokesperson in the Indian External Affairs Ministry, Syed Akbaruddin.

Earlier Sushmita’s relatives in Kolkata suspect foul play by her in-laws and the sources in the Indian External Affairs described the incident as “family feud.”

However after receiving inititial reports of the probe, Akbaruddin said: “On the sad case of Dr. Sushmita Banerjee, things have evolved in the probe since we last met. While it was initially for us very distressing that an Indian woman was killed brutally, we now find that it is taking a disturbing turn. And that is that the Governor of Paktia Province has indicated to our Ambassador that those who are involved in this, based on arrests made since we last met here, seem to be what he described as Pakistani Taliban, and the indication was that they were based from areas beyond Afghanistan borders. This is extremely disturbing for us.”

Saying that India will follow this case with laser-like precision, he said:”we have left the investigation part in the hands of the investigating authorities in whom we have full confidence. And this is what they have shared with us so far. We understand that six to seven people have been arrested. What is coming out from them is what has been shared with others too, and they have shared it with us.”

Sushmita’s relatives had earlier said her husband Janbaz told them that she was killed by the Taliban. However, in his statement to the Indian embassy he changed his stance and said that he was not sure who had killed his wife. Also, no post mortem was conducted on her and no prior information was given to them before burying her in Afghanistan.

Sushmita’s relatives also approached the West Bengal government for help and met the Chief Minister on Saturday and demand her body be returned to them in India.

Sushmita had attained international fame for her novel 'A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife' which was later made into a Hindi film. Banerjee had married an Afghan moneylender in Kolkata in the mid 1980s. Later, they had moved to Afghanistan where her husband ran a garment shop in the Paktika province.

Meanwhile the Afghan police had detained two persons over the killing of Indian author Sushmita Banerjee.

The suspects belong to the notorious Haqqani militant network.

'The men were arrested on the basis of intelligence information, and were found in possession of two Kalashnikovs, a motorbike and explosives,' provincial police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran told and international news channel.

'Both the men are Afghan and from the village where Ms Banerjee lived. They have both confessed to involvement in the killing,' Zadran said.
Both the suspects were also accused of planting mines to target the investigation team probing the killing.