Award-winning Reuters journalist from India killed in Afghanistan

Kabul/New Delhi, July 16 (EFE).- An award-winning photojournalist with India had died during clashes between Afghan forces and Taliban militants in Kandahar, officials said on Friday.

Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who headed the multimedia team of Reuters in India, was killed on Thursday night, said the Afghan Ambassador to India, Farid Mamundzay.

“Deeply disturbed by the sad news of the killing of a friend, Danish, in Kandahar last night. The Indian Journalist and winner of Pulitzer Prize was embedded with Afghan security forces,” Mamundzay tweeted.

The envoy said he was with the security forces when militants attacked them last night.

Sources in Kabul told EFE that Siddiqui died during clashes in the Spin-Boldak town of the Kandahar province.

He was reporting from Afghanistan for the past few weeks, covering the Afghan security crisis following the withdrawal of foreign troops.

For the past few days, he was in Kandahar, where the Taliban captured a vital border crossing with Pakistan two days ago.

Siddiqui had, in a string of tweets earlier this week, marked himself safe when the vehicle he was traveling in came under fire from militants.

“The Humvee in which I was traveling with other special forces was also targeted by at least 3 RPG rounds and other weapons. I was lucky to be safe,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

The photojournalist won the Pulitzer in 2018 for his work on the

Rohingya refugee crisis.

Siddiqui was known for his extensive coverage of the 2020 Delhi riots, protests by Indian farmers, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

He captured drone images of funeral pyres during a devastating second wave of the coronavirus that caught global attention toward the health crisis in India earlier this year. EFE

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