According to a report published in a US-based magazine on Thursday, Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was not simply killed in a crossfire in Afghanistan, but was ‘brutally murdered’ by the Taliban after verifying his identity. Siddiqui, 38, was killed while on assignment in Afghanistan. The award-winning journalist was killed in Kandahar’s Spin Boldak district while covering clashes between Afghan troops and the Taliban.
According to the Washington Examiner, Siddiqui travelled to the Spin Boldak region with an Afghan National Army team to cover the fight
between Afghan forces and the Taliban for control of the lucrative Pakistani border crossing. A Taliban attack split the team when they got within a third of a mile of the customs post, with the commander and a few men separated from Siddiqui, who remained with three other Afghan troops.
Siddiqui was hit by shrapnel during the assault, so he and his team went to a nearby mosque for first aid. However, when word got out that a journalist was inside the mosque, the Taliban attacked. According to the report, a local investigation indicates that the Taliban attacked the mosque solely because of Siddiqui’s presence there.
‘Siddiqui was alive when the Taliban captured him. The Taliban verified Siddiqui’s identity and then executed him, as well as those with him. The commander and the remainder of his team died as they tried to rescue him,’ it said.
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