Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was not merely killed in a crossfire in Afghanistan, nor was he merely collateral harm, however was “brutally murdered” by the Taliban after verifying his identification, in accordance with a report revealed in a US-based journal on Thursday.
Siddiqui, 38, was on project in Afghanistan when he died. The award-winning journalist was killed whereas masking clashes between Afghan troops and the Taliban in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar metropolis.
According to the Washington Examiner report, Siddiqui travelled with an Afghan National Army staff to the Spin Boldak area to cowl preventing between Afghan forces and the Taliban to regulate the profitable border crossing with Pakistan.
An artist pays tribute to Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui in Mumbai. (Express photograph: Ganesh Shirsekar)
When they obtained to inside one-third of a mile of the customs publish, a Taliban assault break up the staff, with the commander and some males separated from Siddiqui, who remained with three different Afghan troops.
During this assault, shrapnel hit Siddiqui, and so he and his staff went to a neighborhood mosque the place he acquired first support. As phrase unfold, nonetheless, {that a} journalist was within the mosque, the Taliban attacked. The native investigation suggests the Taliban attacked the mosque solely due to Siddiqui’s presence there, the report stated.
“Siddiqui was alive when the Taliban captured him. The Taliban verified Siddiqui’s identity and then executed him, as well as those with him. The commander and the remainder of his team died as they tried to rescue him,” it stated.
“While a widely circulated public photograph shows Siddiqui’s face recognizable, I reviewed other photographs and a video of Siddiqui’s body provided to me by a source in the Indian government that show the Taliban beat Siddiqui around the head and then riddled his body with bullets,” wrote the author Micheal Rubin, who’s a senior fellow on the American Enterprise Institute.
The Taliban’s resolution to seek out, execute Siddiqui, after which mutilate his corpse exhibits that they don’t respect the principles of struggle or conventions that govern the behaviour of the worldwide group., the report stated.
Siddiqui gained the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 as a part of the Reuters staff for his or her protection of the Rohingya disaster. He had extensively coated the Afghanistan battle, the Hong Kong protests and different main occasions in Asia, Middle East, and Europe.
People carry the useless physique of photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, who was killed whereas masking a conflict between Afghan safety forces and Taliban, throughout his funeral at Jamia Millia Islamia graveyard in New Delhi, Sunday, July 18, 2021. (PTI)
Siddiqui was laid to relaxation on the Jamia Millia Islamia graveyard the place a sea of mourners gathered to pay their final respects.
His physique arrived on the Delhi airport within the night of July 18 and was later delivered to his residence in Jamia Nagar the place an enormous crowd, together with his household and pals, had gathered.
