Danish Siddiqui was a notable Indian photojournalist. He was working for the Reuters news agency and was covering the violent clashes in Afghanistan. On Friday, while covering the encounter of the Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters, he got killed. He had been actively reporting the Afghan-Taliban tensions for the past few days.
The official account of Reuters India tweeted, ‘Reuters journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters near a border crossing with Pakistan, an Afghan commander said https://reut.rs/3BbICPK‘.
Danish Siddiqui: The Pulitzer Prize-winner
Siddiqui was based in Mumbai, he had a mass communication degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre. In addition to it, he held a degree in Economics from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Danish’s career started as a television news correspondent. Afterwards, he got recruited by Reuters as an intern in 2010.
Remarkably, Danish and his colleague Adnan Abidi got bestowed with the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. They are the recipients of the Pulitzer Prize in 2018. The duo got the honour as a result of their profound documentation of the Rohingya refugee crisis. Additionally, Siddiqui had also brilliantly covered the COVID-19 pandemic, Delhi riots of 2020, Hong Kong protests during 2019-2020, Nepal earthquake of 2015, among others.
Reactions Pour in
Manish Sisodia, the Deputy chief minister of Delhi tweeted, “Shocked and deeply saddened by the news of @dansiddiqui’s demise. A brave & heroic Photo Journalist who died on line of duty while covering clashes in Spin Boldak district in Kandahar, Afghanistan. A big loss to journalism”.
M.K. Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu took to Twitter, I am deeply saddened by the untimely death of @dansiddiqui who, through his camera lens, had brought to us the devastation of pandemics, pogroms and humanitarian crises. His death gives a message to the world once again to shun violence and terrorism in any form. #DanishSiddiqui‘
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also expressed grief. He writes, ‘My condolences to the family and friends of Danish Siddiqui. I appeal to GOI to facilitate bringing his mortal remains back home at the earliest.’
The multitude of works by Danish Siddiqui has been etched in the history of journalism. Rest in peace, Sir.