There is a more gruesome side to Danish Siddiqui’s death. He was not killed in cross-firing, but caught by the Taliban and brutally killed.
On July 16, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, the chief photographer for Reuters in India, was killed in Afghanistan and while it was reported he was killed in cross-firing by the Taliban by world news, the real circumstances of Siddiqui’s death emerge. He was not simply killed in a crossfire, nor was he simply collateral damage; rather, he was sought, identified, and brutally murdered by the Taliban.
Circumstances Leading to Danish’s Death:
Local Afghan authorities say that Danish Siddiqui traveled with an Afghan National Army team to the Spin Boldak region to cover fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban to control the lucrative border crossing with Pakistan. When they got to within one-third of a mile of the customs post, a Taliban attack separated the team, with the commander and a few men split from Siddiqui, who remained with three other Afghan troops.
During this attack, the shrapnel hit Siddiqui, and so he and his team went to a local mosque where he received first aid. As word spread, however, that a journalist was in the mosque, the Taliban entered. The local investigation suggests the Taliban attacked the mosque only because of Danish Siddiqui’s presence there.
Siddiqui was alive when the Taliban captured him and the Taliban verified his identity and on getting his name, then brutally executed him, as well as those with him. The commander and the remainder of his team died as they tried to rescue him.
The widely circulated photograph shows Danish Siddiqui’s face as recognizable but photos and videos provided by a source in the Indian government that show the Taliban beat Siddiqui around the head and then riddled his body with bullets making his face unrecognizable.
Pakistan and USA Appear Whitewashing Taliban Brutality:
Danish Siddiqui took up a highly risky job in a very shellshock warzone, and the Afghan National Army gave him permission to cover the fighting near Spin Boldak because Afghan forces believed they would win.
There are rules, codes, and ethics of war that prevent barbarity, but the Taliban are always brutal but took their savagery even higher perhaps knowing Danish Siddiqui was Indian.
They also perhaps wanted to signal out to other journalists in the West to keep out and to send out fear waves.
It was strange that the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan could call the Taliban normal citizens and not terrorists. What is the definition of terrorism? According to the Oxford dictionary, terrorism is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
Is Imran Khan normalizing the Taliban’s acts of cruelty?
And the question goes back to the US government. The Biden administration’s decision to uphold the Feb. 29, 2020, U.S.-Taliban agreement even though the Taliban have not, and to withdraw completely deserted Afghanistan to a bloodbath.
Once again, Asia, the Middle East, and the West too will have their share of unrest and chaos. It affects the world. It appears to the world that the Biden government is soft on the Taliban, almost appeasing, and whitewashing their crimes.
They in fact did not state that the Taliban brutally executed Danish Siddiqui but rather expressed regret of a tragic accidental death of cross-firing of a photojournalist.
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken says Afghanistan would be ‘pariah state’ under Taliban takeover, and said, Â “The Taliban says that it seeks international recognition, that it wants international support for Afghanistan. Presumably, it wants its leaders to be able to travel freely in the world, sanctions lifted, etc.”
“The taking over of the country by force and abusing the rights of its people is not the path to achieve those objectives,” he said.
However, the USA cannot do much to help Afghanistan.
