Indian journalist Danish Siddiqui had been reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan, when he was killed during clashes, according to a report.
Reuters photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Danish Siddiqui was killed during clashes in Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak district, TOLO News reported on Friday.
The Indian photojournalist was in Kandahar covering Afghanistan’s internal security crisis following the withdrawal of foreign troops over the last few days.
“We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region,” Reuters President Michael Friedenberg and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement. “Danish was an outstanding journalist, a devoted husband and father, and a much-loved colleague. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time.”
I could feel the tension in the air as ASF were expecting an imminent attack from the Taliban. There was sporadic machine gun fire but all hell broke loose as the Humvees reached the extraction point. pic.twitter.com/TqnnqiuTUr
— Danish Siddiqui (@dansiddiqui) July 13, 2021
Earlier Friday, Siddiqui told Reuters he was wounded in the arm by shrapnel while reporting on a clash clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters. He was talking to local shopkeepers when the Taliban attacked again.
Siddiqui and his colleague Adnan Abidi were a part of the Reuters team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography in 2018 for its reporting on the Rohingya refugee crisis.
The Humvee in which I was travelling with other special forces was also targeted by at least 3 RPG rounds and other weapons. I was lucky to be safe and capture the visual of one of the rockets hitting the armour plate overhead. pic.twitter.com/wipJmmtupp
— Danish Siddiqui (@dansiddiqui) July 13, 2021
He was praised for his coverage of the Nepal earthquake in 2015, Mosul in 2016-17 and the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests in 2019–2020. Closer home, Siddiqui extensively covered the 2020 Delhi riots, the farmers’ protests and the COVID-19 pandemic.
sc/sms (Reuters, AFP)
