Suspected Taliban militants have shot dead the Indian author Sushmita Banerjee, writer of a popular book about her dramatic escape from the Taliban in the 90s.

Local police say she was shot multiple times and her body was found in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika.

“We found her bullet riddled body near Madrassa on the outskirts of Sharan city (provincial capital) this morning,” provincial police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran said on Thursday, confirming earlier reports from Indian media.

Ms Banerjee, 49, was a fairly well-known writer whose book Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife, about her dramatic escape from the Taliban was made into a Bollywood film in 2003.

Police say that the book may have been the reason militants targeted her, and that they had spoken with her husband.

“Our investigation … indicates that the militants had grievances against her for something she had written or told in the past, which was then turned into a film,” the provincial police chief said.

“She had been shot 20 times and some of her hair had been ripped off by the militants,” Zadran said.