IANS
Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui (seen above in a tweet he posted a day ago), a Pulitzer Prize winner, was killed in Afghanistan while on a reporting assignment, Afghan Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay said on Friday.
Siddiqui, a resident of Delhi, was on a reporting assignment with the Afghan security forces when he was killed.
This picture, if no other.
Consider what it meant, for a Muslim man, surrounded by a murderous mob who wouldn't even let anyone take out a phone, to insert himself into this moment, and pull out a camera.
The unparalleled bravery required to pay witness.
RIP Danish. pic.twitter.com/sSO4Zqzgke
— Naomi Barton (@therealnaomib) July 16, 2021
Siddiqui’s father, Jamia Millia Islamia Professor Akhtar Siddiqui, told IANS on Friday: “I got information about my son about one hour ago. The last time I spoke to my son was two days ago, and he was very happy at that time.”
Ambassador 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.”
Siddiqui was constantly capturing Afghan happenings in his camera, and was informing people through his social media posts.
Two days ago, he tweeted: “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”.
He also posted a short video about the action.
Two exceptional photographs which photojournalist Danish Siddiqui had taken during India's tryst with the coronavirus, which summed up the state of our nation better than any other report did. pic.twitter.com/7XjKbnUacI
— Sayantan Ghosh (@sayantansunnyg) July 16, 2021
Siddiqui was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his coverage of the Rohingya issue.
He was a student of Jamia University and his father has been a professor at the university.
