Danish Siddiqui

Danish Siddiqui (19 May 1983 – 16 July 2021 ) was an Indian photojournalist based in Delhi, who used to lead the national Reuters multimedia team and was Chief Photographer India.

He graduated with a degree in economics from JMI before pursuing post-graduation in Mass Communication from the A.J.K. Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia in 2007.

Siddiqui started his career as a correspondent for the Hindustan Times before shifting to the TV Today Network.

He switched to photojournalism and joined Reuters as an intern in 2010.

Siddiqui had since covered the Afghanistan War (2012), Battle of Mosul (2016–2017), the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis, the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, the 2020 Delhi riots, and the COVID-19 pandemic among other stories in South Asia, Middle East and Europe.

Since July 2021, he was serving as an embedded journalist with the Afghan Special Forces to document the Taliban offensive, in what would be his last assignment.

In 2013, Siddiqui had secured the third position in the Arts and Culture Category at the Sony World Photography Awards 2013.

He was also a winner in the recently held Hong Kong 25th Human Rights Press Awards 2021 for Photography (Series) and Photography (Single Image) categories.

His work on COVID-19 crisis, titled "Documenting India’s Greatest Healthcare Crisis", was also exhibited in the prestigious Visa pour l'Image photojournalism festival held in August 2021.

On 29 December 2021, Siddiqui was posthumously awarded 'the Journalist of the Year' for 2020 by the Mumbai Press Club.

Chief Justice of India N. V. Ramana presented the annual 'RedInk Awards for Excellence in Journalism'.

During the event CJI Ramana stated,

"He was a man with a magical eye and was rightly regarded as one of the foremost photojournalists of this era. If a picture can tell a thousand words, his photos were novels."In 2022, Danish's photography of the COVID-19 pandemic in India was part of another Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography winning photography package, increasing his tally to two Pulitzer Prizes.

Siddiqui was a Muslim.

He was married to Rike, a German national.

They had two children.

Siddiqui was killed alongside a senior Afghan officer while covering a clash between Afghan Special Forces and Taliban insurgents in Spin Boldak, Kandahar, on 16 July 2021.

His body was handed to the Afghan Red Crescent Society.

According to local Afghan officials as well as Taliban members, Siddiqui was killed by the Taliban in an ambush-crossfire.

The Taliban mutilated and disrespected the body.

A detailed BBC investigative report by Vinit Khare published on 10 Aug 2021 confirmed witness accounts that Danish's body was indeed subjected to mutilation by the Taliban post his murder after displaying the body in the city center and only after intense negotiations by the Red Cross team did they return the body.

Another investigative report published by Reuters on 23 Aug 2021 said that Danish was killed after he was left behind by the Afghan forces in retreat.

It quotes a Taliban fighter as saying "You’re bringing Indians to fight against us.” The officer replied, “Don’t shoot him. He’s a journalist.” “We already killed that guy,” the fighter answered which further lends credence to reports that Danish was executed post his capture. The Reuter report did not answer questions related to mutilation of the body, safety of Danish while covering such conflict, absence of security advisors, not recalling him back after 13 July attack. As per official statement issued by Reuters, an internal investigation is being conducted.

Michael Rubin (in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner on 29 July 2021) cited several unnamed sources to claim that the Taliban had eliminated him in a planned operation, which was covered-up by the US Government.

He claimed that as part of this operation, they had attacked a mosque where Siddiqui had gone to receive first-aid, captured him, vetted his identity, and then executed him, after fighting off the Afghan forces who came to the rescue.

The op-ed was immediately reproduced by multiple outlets of mainstream Indian media.

The New York Times (NYT) failed to confirm the narrative of execution.

However, the-then spokesman of Afghan National Defence and Security Forces (ANDSF) told India Today that Siddiqui was indeed executed by the Taliban.

A report by News18 has since confirmed Rubin's version of events from Afghan and Indian intelligence officials; presence of about a dozen close range gunshot wounds on his torso were argued to corroborate his thesis.

The Taliban had mutilated his body before returning it though it denied doing this.

He received his first 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography, as part of the Reuters team, for documenting the Rohingya refugee crisis.

In 2021, he was killed while covering a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban forces near a border crossing with Pakistan.

His second Pulitzer was awarded posthumously in 2022 for documenting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Siddiqui grew up in the neighbourhood of the university, and attended the Fr. Agnel School, New Delhi.

In 2018, he became the first Indian alongside Adnan Abidi to win the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography (as part of the Photography staff of Reuters) for documenting the 2015 Rohingya refugee crisis.

Another photograph, taken of a teenage right-wing activist brandishing a pistol at protesters while police looked on, became evidence of "the emboldening of Hindu nationalists" in the wake of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

His photos depicting mass cremations of COVID-19 fatalities in India generated outrage.

Right-wing news portals attacked Siddiqui for capitalizing on "Hindu suffering" and private grief.

A photograph taken during the 2020 Delhi riots, documenting the lynching of a Muslim man by a Hindu mob, was featured by Reuters as one of the defining photographs of the year.

BBC News, National Public Radio, and The Caravan noted it to be the defining image of the riot.