Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Danish Siddiqui killed in Afghanistan

SHARE NOW

(LONDON) — Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed in southern Afghanistan while covering clashes between the country’s special forces and the Taliban. He was 38.

Siddiqui, an Indian national and a chief photographer for the Reuters news agency, was embedded with Afghan special forces in the southern province of Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold, and had been reporting on the battle there when he lost his life.

A local official told ABC News that their convoy was ambushed by the Taliban in Spin Boldak, a strategic border crossing along the frontier with Pakistan that the group claimed to have seized earlier this week.

“Danish was an outstanding journalist, a devoted husband and father, and a much-loved colleague,” Reuters president Michael Friedenberg and editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni said in a joint statement. “Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time.”

The Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC) said it was “deeply saddened” by Siddiqui’s death.

“So far, AJSC has not managed to obtain verified information on how he was killed,” the Kabul-based organization said in a statement Friday. “AJSC condemns this killing and calls on the Afghan government to investigate the incident in a speedy manner and share its findings.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.