Indian photojournalist for Reuters, Danish Siddiqui, was killed on Friday while on assignment in Afghanistan. He was reportedly “covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan,” when he got caught in a crossfire.
Siddiqui was embedded as a journalist since earlier last week with Afghan special forces based in the southern province of Kandahar, according to Reuters. He had been reporting on fighting between Afghan commandos and Taliban fighters.
An official told Reuters that Siddiqui and a senior Afghan officer were killed in what they described as “Taliban crossfire.” It happened during the efforts of Afghan special forces to retake the main market area of Spin Boldak.
“We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region,” Reuters President Michael Friedenberg and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement. “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.”
Danish Siddiqui covered war zones and crises from Iraq to Hong Kong to Nepal. He was killed on Friday covering Afghan-Taliban clashes near the Pakistan border. Here is some of the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer’s best work from the past decade: https://t.co/HnoHFKTyFS pic.twitter.com/Asz4vVFMnh
— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) July 16, 2021
Danish was born in 1980 in India. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Masters’s in Mass Communication. Before becoming a photojournalist, he was a television correspondent with one of India’s leading news networks. And when he did turn to photojournalism, he indeed was exquisite at it.
He joined Reuters in 2010 and had since covered major events in n Asia, Middle East, and Europe. This includes the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Rohingya refugees crisis, Hong Kong protests, Nepal earthquakes, Mass Games in North Korea, and living conditions of asylum seekers in Switzerland.
Danish was honored for his work with various photojournalism awards in the USA, England, China, and India. In 2018, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis. In honor of Danish’s life and incredible work, Reuters has compiled a gallery of his most powerful work.
“Danish Siddiqui understood the power of images, of lives lived and lost,” says the BBC. “moments of celebration, protest, and sometimes despair. He said he enjoyed most capturing the human face of a breaking story. But in that desire to uncover truth, he’s paid the ultimate price.”
[via DPReview]
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