Pulitzer Prize winner photo journalist killed in Afghanistan
Agencies
NEW DELHI, July 16 2021: Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize winner, has been killed in Kandahar while on a reporting assignment embedded with Afghan security forces, Afghan Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay said Friday.
Afghanistan’s Tolo News channel cited sources as saying that Siddiqui was killed in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar. It didn’t give further details.
Siddiqui had recently reported on a mission by Afghan Special Forces to rescue a soldier who had been cut off from others and had fought the Taliban for hours on his own. His reports included graphic images of vehicles of the Afghan forces being targeted with rockets.
Fierce fighting has been reported in and around the southern city of Kandahar, the capital of the province of the same name. The Taliban have captured key districts near the city and engaged Afghan forces in a police district on the outskirts of the capital.
India evacuated some 50 diplomats, support staff and security personnel from the consulate in Kandahar on an Indian Air Force flight on July 10 amid growing concerns about the security situation in the city.