The photojournalist killed Danish Siddiqui

Share

July 16, 2021 Reuters Danish reporter and photographer Siddiqui was killed today in Afghanistan while he was following clashes between Afghan security forces and the Taliban near a border crossing with Pakistan in Spin Boldak, Kandahar district. This was reported by sources of the Afghan special forces.



The photojournalist, awarded with numerous awards including the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for photography with reports on Rohingya refugees, headed the multimedia department of Reuters in India and had been following the clashes in Kandahar for several days.



"We are urgently seeking more information and are working with regional authorities," Reuters president Michael Friedenberg and director of the newspaper Alessandra Galloni said in a statement. They say they are saddened by the loss of their colleague. "Danish was an exceptional journalist, a loyal husband and father and a beloved colleague," add colleagues. "Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time," colleagues say of him.



Even the ambassador of Afghanistan to India, Farid Mamundzay on Twitter says he is "deeply shocked by the sad news of the killing of a friend, Danish Seddiqi, in Kandahar last night".



The reporter had been embedded with the Afghan security forces for a week. According to reports from the BBC, the convoy of Afghan forces with which he was embedded was ambushed by the Taliban near a key border crossing with Pakistan. It is not clear how many people died in the attack.



Afghan special forces were fighting to regain control of the Spin Boldak market area when Siddiqui and a senior Agfhano official were killed in what has been termed Taliban crossfire, according to Reuters.



Reuters itself reports on its website that Siddiqui had told the agency that he was wounded in the arm by a shrapnel from the "shrapnel" bullet on Friday, while covering the clashes: he had been treated and was recovering when the Taliban withdrew from the fighting in Spin Boldak, but according to the Afghan commander quoted by Reuters, the Taliban then attacked again, while the reporter spoke to traders.



Reuters said it could not independently verify the details of the fighting reported by the military official, who asked not to be identified. The Taliban who had taken control of the Spin Boldak crossing on Wednesday.



Siddiqui photographer since 2010, for work he has followed many wars: in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Rohingya crisis, the protests in Hong Kong and the earthquakes in Nepal.