By Ewelina Lepionko
Pulitzer-Prize-winning photographer Danish Siddiqui, who worked for the Reuters news agency was killed Friday while on assignment in southern Afghanistan after coming under fire by Taliban militiamen.
The Indian fearless & courageous journalist was covering the situation in Kandahar over the last few days.
Danish Siddiqui was killed while covering clashes between Afghan security forces and the Taliban. Bring Peace, Equality, Brotherhood by doing true devotion which is mentioned in our Scriptures. @SaintRampalJiM #DanishSiddiquihttps://t.co/mHmCHZ6msA
— SA News Channel (@SatlokChannel) July 17, 2021
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, his were worth millions.” Danish Siddiqui
The 41-year-old, who was chief photographer for Reuters news agency in India, was on assignment when he died.
“While I enjoy covering news stories – from business to politics to sports – what I enjoy most is capturing the human face of a breaking story,” he wrote in a profile on the Reuters website.
Reuters said Siddiqui had been embedded as a journalist earlier this week with Afghan Special Forces based out of Kandahar and “had been reporting on fighting between Afghan commandos and Taliban fighters”.
Based out of Mumbai, Siddiqui worked with Reuters for more than a decade.
Reuters President Michael Freidenberg and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni, in a statement, said: “We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region. 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.”
He graduated with a degree in Economics from Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. He had a degree in Mass Communication from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia in 2007.
He had started his career as a television news correspondent and later switched to photojournalism. He was a photojournalist with the international news agency Reuters and worked as a correspondent with the India Today Group from September 2008 to January 2010.
indiatoday.in
From the memorial meet for Danish Siddiqui at Press Club of India pic.twitter.com/qTIHeQ4R0Q
— Press Club of India (@PCITweets) July 17, 2021
Siddiqui was part of a team that won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography for their coverage of Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar.
Siddiqui covered the conflict in Iraq, earthquakes in Nepal, and demonstrations in Hong Kong. Recently, his photos of mass funerals held at the peak of India's devastating second wave went viral and won him global praise and recognition.
Thirty-three journalists were killed in Afghanistan between 2018 and 2021, the United Nations said in a report this year.
Ten journalists were killed on April 30, 2018, including nine reporters and photographers who died in a suicide bomb attack in Kabul, and a journalist working for the Afghan language service of the BBC who was shot in the eastern city of Khost. That day was the deadliest for the country's media since the Taliban were ousted in a U.S.-led campaign in 2001.
reuters.com
