An Indian journalist has been killed in the violence-hit Kandahar of Afghanistan amid the ongoing bloodshed. Afghan Ambassador Farid Mamundje reported on Friday that Danish Siddiqui, an Indian photojournalist, was killed during his coverage in Kandahar on Thursday. He was reporting the situation there with Afghan security forces in Kandahar. Danish Siddiqui, a photojournalist with news agency Reuters, was a Pulitzer Prize winner. Earlier on July 13, Danish was also attacked, which he narrowly survived.
Afghan Ambassador Fareed Mamundje tweeted: “Deeply disturbed by the sad news of killing a friend Danish Siddiqui in Kandahar last night. Indian journalists and Pulitzer Prize winners were doing coverage with Afghan security forces. I met him 2 weeks ago before he left for Kabul. Condolences to his family and Reuters.
Afghanistan’s Tolo news channel quoted sources as saying that Siddiqui was killed in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar. However, it did not provide further details about the incident. Earlier, after surviving the airstrike on July 13, Danish had given this information by tweeting and said that he was lucky to survive.
He wrote in his tweet on July 13 – The Humvi (armoured vehicle) in which I was travelling with other special forces was also targeted with at least 3 RPG rounds and other weapons. I was lucky to be safe and I captured a scene of the rockets hitting the top of the armour plate.
Siddiqui recently reported on an Afghan special forces mission to rescue a policeman, describing how the policeman was separated from his comrades and fought the Taliban alone for hours. Danish also included in its report photographs of rockets targeting vehicles of Afghan forces.
There are reports that fierce fighting between Taliban and Afghan forces continues in and around the southern city of Kandahar, the capital of the province of the same name. The Taliban have captured major districts near the city. The situation in Kandahar is deteriorating now and it has become an arena of war.
Because of this deteriorating situation in Kandahar, India on 10 July evacuated and recalled about 50 diplomats, support staff and security personnel from the Consulate in Kandahar by an Indian Air Force flight.
