The Paktika provincial Police officials on Tuesday announced that it has six men now in custody for the recent murder of Indian writer Sushmita Banerjee. The police said that all the men admitted to being assigned to the assassination by the Haqqani Network and Pakistan based Al-Jihad Madrassa.

The announcement comes a week after Paktika officials had announced the arrest of two men thought to be responsible for the gruesome murder in which the Indian writer was dragged out of her home, beaten and shot multiple times. Four more men were arrested this week.

"Initially, we arrested two men and they confessed their relations with the Haqqani network," said Dawlat Khan Zadran, the Paktika Police Chief. "The two provided us the address of two other men during interrogation. All confessed their crime and admitted that they had been assigned the job by the Al-Jihad Madrassa."

"There was a person by the name of Musafer, he was our group leader, we had some Pakistani companions and jointly committed the crime," one of the arrested men said.

Abdurrahman Rahimi, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Interior (MoI), travelled to Paktika to honor the achievement of the security forces in arresting the culprits.

"Undoubtedly, we have enemies in the region. They recruit individuals and commit such crimes. They seek to create security challenges and this was a planned plot," Mr. Rahimi said.

Sushmita Banerjee was shot dead in Paktika province two weeks ago.

The Indian writer settled in Afghanistan in 1989 after marrying a Paktika resident, but she fled the country following the establishment of Taliban regime. The 49 years old had written a book named Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou (A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife) in 1997, based on her experience of marrying an Afghan and her time in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule. It is said that the book was one of the main reason behind her assassination.

Sushmita Banerjee converted to Islam after marrying a local businessman from Paktika province and changed her name to "Sahib Kamal." She had recently returned to Afghanistan and was working at a health center in Paktika.