Danish Siddiqui, award-winning Indian photojournalist, killed in Afghanistan days after surviving Taliban rocket attack

Photo: Danish Siddiqui in Kandhar during a mission of Afghan forces. (Credit: Danish Siddiqui/Twitter)

Danish Siddiqui, chief photographer for Reuters India, was killed by terrorists in Afghanistan while covering clashes in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar, Tolo News reported. He left for Afghanistan two weeks ago and had been covering the situation in Kandhar since then. Danish Siddiqui was a recipient of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.

Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay expressed shock over the news. “Deeply saddened by the news of the killing of a friend Danish Siddiqui in Kandahar last night. Indian journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, he was with Afghan security forces when they were attacked by terrorists. I met him 2 weeks ago when he left for Kabul. He talked about his passion for photojournalism and his love for Afghanistan. He will be remembered. I express my deepest condolences to his family and to Reuters,” said Farid Mamundzay.

के लिए अपने जुनून और अफगानिस्तान के लिए प्यार के बारे में बात की।

उसे याद किया जाएगा। मैं उनके परिवार और रॉयटर्स के प्रति अपनी गहरी संवेदना व्यक्त करता हूं। 2/2

— Farid Mamundzay फरीद मामुन्दजई فرید ماموندزی (@FMamundzay) July 16, 2021

Danish Siddiqui, in his last tweet dated July 13, shared that he got a break of just 15 minutes during almost 15 hours of back to back missions while accompanying Afghan Security forces in an extraction mission on the outskirts of Kandahar city. He had also shared that the armoured vehicle in which he was travelling with the forces was also hit by a rocket but he was lucky to survive.

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

Siddiqui and his colleague Adnan Abidi won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis in 2018. By winning the prestigious award, they became the first Indians to receive the honour. Danish had also covered the 2020 Delhi riots, the 2015 Nepal earthquake, Mosul Battle in 2016-17, and the 2019–2020 protests in Hong Kong.