India-Based Photojournalist Working For Reuters Killed In Afghanistan

By Shakir Husain NEW DELHI, July 16 (Bernama) -- An award-winning Indian photojournalist working for Reuters news agency was killed in Afghanistan's Kandahar province in clashes between Afghan forces and Taliban. Danish Siddiqui, embedded with Afghan commandos, was covering the conflict in Kandahar for the past few days. He was killed in clashes in the Spin Boldak district, according to Afghanistan's Tolo News network. "Deeply disturbed by the sad news of the killing of a friend,” the Afghan ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay, said in a tweet on Friday. The envoy mentioned it happened on Thursday night. Danish on Tuesday gave a vivid account of a fierce fight between the Taliban and a group of Afghan special forces. "Rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) and other heavy weapon were used by the Taliban against the convoy resulting in the destruction of 3 Humvees. Gunners atop the Humvees swivelled wildly, aiming fire at suspected Taliban fighters who were hard to see," read one of his last tweets. "I was lucky to be safe and capture the visual of one of the rockets hitting the armour plate overhead,” he said. Danish was among the Reuters journalists who won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for feature photography depicting the Rohingya refugee crisis. An alumnus of New Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia university, Danish, in his early 40s, received wide praise for his recent work covering the COVID-19 situation and protests in India. -- BERNAMA