Indian Photojournalist Danish Siddiqui killed in Afghanistan clashes

KABUL: A Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, was killed on Friday in Afghanistan. He was embedded with the Afghan Special Forces on a journalistic assignment.

Afghanistan's ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay tweeted, "Deeply disturbed by the sad news of the killing of a friend, Danish Seddiqi in Kandahar last night. The Indian Journalist & winner of Pulitzer Prize was embedded with Afghan security forces. I met him 2 weeks ago before his departure to Kabul. Condolences to his family & Reuters."

He worked as a correspondent for the India Today Group as a photojournalist for the international news agency Reuters.

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He won the Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in 2018.

For his efforts recording the brutality against Myanmar's minority Rohingya group, he shared the award with colleague Adnan Abidi and five others.

His photographs of mass funerals organized in the height of India's terrible second wave recently went viral, earning him worldwide praise and recognition.

Siddiqui was a photojournalist who covered a wide range of subjects all around the world.

His main works include coverage of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, the Rohingya refugee crisis, Hong Kong protests and Nepal earthquakes.

Siddiqui has been reporting on the situation in Kandahar, Afghanistan for the past few days as tensions in the region have risen.

In a tweet, he revealed that he had accompanied the Afghan Special Forces on some missions. When the Afghan Special Forces were attacked by the Taliban, he reportedly died.

Siddiqui's most recent report was about Afghan troops attempting to rescue a wounded police officer held captive by Taliban fighters on the outskirts of Kandahar.

On June 13, he stated that at least three RPG rounds and other weapons were fired at the vehicle he and other special forces were travelling in. In one of his tweets he wrote, "I was lucky to be safe and capture the visual of one of the rockets hitting the armour plate overhead."

According to reports, Siddiqui was killed in fight between Taliban and government forces which have become more intense as US-led international forces leave the area.

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