Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui killed covering Afghanistan clashes
Lahore, 16th July: Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui gets killed while covering clashes between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
According to details, Pulitzer Prize winner, Danish Siddiqui who was an Indian photojournalist working for Reuters in Mumbai lost his life on Friday while covering clashes in Kandahar.
An Afghan commander confirmed the news of his death. The official told Reuters that the Afghan special forces had been fighting to take over the main market area of Spin Boldak.
As per his reports, in a crossfire between security forces and the Taliban, Reuters correspondent Siddiqui along with a senior Afghan officer got killed.
It is pertinent to mention here that Danish Siddiqui was lodged as a journalist earlier this week with Afghan special forces based in the southern province of Kandahar. He was reporting about the fight between Afghan commandos and Taliban fighters.
His last reporting was covered on his official Twitter account on July 13:
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
Reuters President Michael Friedenberg and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement, “We are urgently seeking more information and working with authorities in the region.”
They added, “Danish was an outstanding journalist, a devoted husband and father, and a much-loved colleague. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time.”
Earlier on Friday, Siddiqui told Reuters he had been wounded in the arm by shrapnel while reporting on the clashes. Reportedly, he was given treatment and was recovering when Taliban fighters retreated from the fighting in Spin Boldak.
According to reports from an Afghan commander, Danish was talking to some shopkeepers when the area came under attack again.
However, the international news agency Reuters has been unable to verify the details of the renewed fighting between both the parties as told by the Afghan commander who asked to remain unidentified.
It is to be noted that Danish Siddiqui was part of the Reuters photography team who won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis in 2018.
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