Written by Mujib Mashal
The physique of Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters photojournalist who was killed in Afghanistan on July 16, was badly mutilated whereas within the custody of the Taliban, officers mentioned this week.
An Indian nationwide, the 38-year-old Siddiqui was killed on the morning of July 16, when Afghan commandos he had accompanied to Spin Boldak, a border district lately captured by the Taliban, have been ambushed. Initial images from the scene confirmed Siddiqui’s physique with a number of wounds however totally intact.
But by that night, when the physique was handed over to the Red Cross and transferred to a hospital within the southern metropolis of Kandahar, it had been badly mutilated, in line with two Indian officers and two Afghan well being officers there.
The New York Times reviewed a number of images, some supplied by Indian officers and others taken by Afghan well being employees on the hospital, that confirmed Siddiqui’s physique had been mutilated. One Indian official mentioned the physique had almost a dozen bullet wounds and that there have been tyre marks on Siddiqui’s face and chest.
One of the well being officers in Kandahar mentioned the physique, together with Siddiqui’s press vest, reached the town’s principal hospital round 8 pm on the day he was killed. His face was unrecognisable, mentioned the official, who added that he couldn’t decide precisely what had been executed to the physique.
There are conflicting reviews about what occurred on July 16, because the Afghan particular forces with whom Siddiqui was travelling tried to retake Spin Boldak.
Accounts from native officers, in addition to Taliban members, recommend that Siddiqui and the Afghan unit’s commander have been killed in a crossfire when their convoy was ambushed from a number of instructions. Their our bodies have been left on the battlefield as the remainder of the unit retreated, in line with this model of occasions.
Some information retailers reported that Siddiqui might need been captured alive by the Taliban after which executed. Those reviews couldn’t be confirmed. One Indian official, nevertheless, mentioned that a few of Siddiqui’s wounds seemed to be from gunshots at shut vary.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied any wrongdoing on the a part of the insurgents, saying they have been beneath orders to deal with our bodies with respect and at hand them over to native elders or the Red Cross. But the Taliban have been in command of the realm on the time, and a few images confirmed what seemed to be the group’s fighters standing round Siddiqui’s physique, which was then intact.
The revelation comes amid concern that the combating in Afghanistan has change into more and more brutal as peace talks have stalled.
The Taliban rose to energy from the southern province within the Nineties, promising to finish atrocities carried out by native militias. In latest years, Afghan forces led by Abdul Raziq, a normal who was assassinated in 2018, have been accused of ruthless ways as they fought the Taliban in Kandahar. Spin Boldak, the place Siddiqui died, was General Raziq’s hometown. Reports have emerged of the Taliban detaining, and in some instances executing, individuals who had been related to the final.
Human Rights Watch and different watchdog teams say the Taliban have carried out a sequence of revenge killings in Kandahar province, the place a few of the most brutal episodes in Afghanistan’s final 4 war-torn a long time have occurred.
“Danish always chose to be on the front lines so that abuses and atrocities could not remain hidden,” mentioned Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “The brutality with which Taliban fighters punished Danish proves the abuses that he was documenting.”
Three days earlier than his killing, Siddiqui had posted a video on Twitter through which he mentioned a number of rocket-propelled grenades had struck the armoured automobile through which he was travelling.
His physique, in a closed coffin, was returned to his dwelling in New Delhi two days after his loss of life. He was buried in a cemetery at Jamia Millia Islamia, the college in New Delhi from which he had graduated.
With inputs from New York Times
