Indian journalist Danish Siddiqui has lost his life in the recent clashes in Afghanistan on Thursday night. He was working with Reuters News Agency and was on the way with Afghan Special forces for their operation against the Taliban.
Siddiqui was a renowned journalist of India and had won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for his fieldwork. He was killed during clashes that broke out in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar city in Afghanistan. He was on a reporting assignment embedded with the Afghan Special Forces.
Afghanistan’s Ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay expressed his condolence in a tweet. “Deeply disturbed by the sad news of the killing of a friend, Danish Seddiqi in Kandahar last night. The Indian Journalist & winner of the Pulitzer Prize was embedded with Afghan security forces. I met him 2 weeks ago before his departure to Kabul. Condolences to his family & Reuters.”
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Danish Siddiqui had started his career as a television news correspondent and later switched to photojournalism. Currently, he was working with the international news agency, Reuters, as a photojournalist.
In 2018, he along with his colleague Adnan Abidi went for documenting the Rohingya Refugee Crisis as part of the Reuters team. His pictures covering the recent COVID-19 crisis in India also made rounds on social media extensively. He documented the plight, helplessness, and severe humanitarian crisis through his moving pictures of the health emergency in India.
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
Danish Siddiqui leaves behind an extraordinary body of work. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography and was embedded with the Afghan Forces in Kandahar. Sharing one of his pictures below. Sincere condolences. RIP https://t.co/xGhjJbsoCQ pic.twitter.com/9V7czR5DtB
— Anurag Thakur (मोदी का परिवार) (@ianuragthakur) July 16, 2021
https://twitter.com/MandoMunda/status/1415941594964905984?s=20
As a photojournalist, he covered a wide range of issues globally. Some of his projects include Hong Kong protests, the earthquake in Nepal, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Rohingya crisis.
For the last few days, he was with the Afghan Special Forces covering the clashes in Kandahar. He was reportedly killed when Afghan Special Forces were attacked by the Taliban.
Read more: India pulls out staff from consulate as situation gets intense in Afghanistan
His last story was about a mission of Afghan Commandos where they were trying to rescue an injured policeman trapped by the Taliban in the outskirts of Kandahar.
On June 13, he shared a video of ‘safely escaping’ a rocket attack on the vehicle he was traveling with special forces.
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
In times where our stimulations rely more on visuals, to present images that stick to our minds was something he did with Empathy, Grace & Beauty.
Thank you Danish Siddiqui for making our times reflect in your images that shall live on forever.May you rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/WUDPwkCzQ3
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) July 16, 2021
People from all over the world are expressing their condolences. His colleagues and friends from India are sharing his work in commemoration of his services. Indian Twitter is brimmed with the pictures he took on various missions. Surprisingly, some left-wing Indian social media users are celebrating his death since he documented the pictures of the COVID-19 emergency in India earlier this year.