Global Outrage : Indian Photo Journalist Danish Siddiqui’s Killing In Afghanistan Mourned By United States, United Nations

Picture : Twitter / ANI

The Biden administration and United States lawmakers have mourned the death of Indian journalist Danish Siddiqui, who was killed in Afghanistan while covering the fighting between Afghan troops and Taliban militants.

According to PTI report, It may be recalled that Siddiqui, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018, worked for Reuters news agency and was killed on Friday in the town of Spin Boldak, near the border with Pakistan. He was embedded with Afghan special forces at the time of his death.

“We are deeply saddened to hear that Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed while covering fighting in Afghanistan,” Jalina Porter, Principal Deputy Spokesperson at the US Department of State told reporters.

“Siddiqui was celebrated for his work often in the world’s most urgent and challenging news stories and for creating striking images that conveyed a wealth of emotion and the human face behind the headlines. His brilliant reporting on the Rohingya refugee crisis earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 2018,” she said.

“Siddiqui’s death is a tremendous loss, not only for Reuters and for his media colleagues but also for the rest of the world. Far too many journalists have been killed in Afghanistan. We continue to call for an end to the violence. A just and durable peace settlement is the only way forward in Afghanistan,” Porter said.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres too in his reaction has expressed grief at the killing of Indian photo-journalist Danish Siddiqui in Afghanistan, with the UN mission in the war-torn country calling for an investigation into his killing as well as those of other reporters.

The Secretary General grieves the journalists killed or indeed harassed anywhere in the world and the case of Danish Siddiqui is one such case, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, said at the daily press briefing on Friday.

He was responding to a question by PTI on the killing of Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Siddiqui, who worked for Reuters news agency and was killed in Afghanistan while he was covering the fierce fighting between Afghan troops and Taliban militants near a border crossing with Pakistan in Kandahar province.