Journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed by Taliban specifically after verifying his identity: Report
Washington, Jul 30: Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was not simply killed in a crossfire in Afghanistan, nor was he simply collateral damage, but was "brutally murdered" by the Taliban after verifying his identity, according to a report published in a US-based magazine on Thursday.
Siddiqui, 38, was on assignment in Afghanistan when he died. The award-winning journalist was killed while covering clashes between Afghan troops and the Taliban in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar city.
According to the Washington Examiner report, Siddiqui travelled 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 split the team, with the commander and a few men separated from Siddiqui, who remained with three other Afghan troops.
During this assault, 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 attacked. The local investigation suggests the Taliban attacked the mosque only because of Siddiqui's presence there, the report said.
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.
While a widely circulated public photograph shows Siddiqui's face recognizable, I reviewed other photographs and a video of Siddiqui's body provided to me by a source in the Indian government that show the Taliban beat Siddiqui around the head and then riddled his body with bullets, wrote the writer Micheal Rubin, who is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
The Taliban's decision to hunt down, execute Siddiqui, and then mutilate his corpse shows that they do not respect the rules of war or conventions that govern the behaviour of the global community., the report said.
Siddiqui won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 as part of the Reuters team for their coverage of the Rohingya crisis. He had extensively covered the Afghanistan conflict, the Hong Kong protests and other major events in Asia, Middle East, and Europe.
Siddiqui was laid to rest at the Jamia Millia Islamia graveyard where a sea of mourners gathered to pay their last respects.
His body arrived at the Delhi airport in the evening of July 18 and was later brought to his residence in Jamia Nagar where a huge crowd, including his family and friends, had gathered.
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BJP appeals to citizens, party members to volunteer for mock drill
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Tuesday appealed to people across the country to join the mock drill on May 7, an exercise the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has asked all states and UTs to undertake to prepare for any "hostile attack" amid rising tensions with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror strike.
In a post on X, the BJP said, "Appeal to all citizens, BJP Karyakartas and leaders, students to come forward and volunteer... Your participation will make all the difference."
Party MPs and MLAs are expected to be a part of the nationwide exercise.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed all states to conduct mock drills on May 7 to ensure the preparedness and effectiveness of civil defence mechanisms.
According to an MHA communication, the measures to be taken during the mock drills include the operationalisation of air-raid warning sirens, training civilians on civil-defence aspects to protect themselves in the event of a "hostile attack" and cleaning bunkers and trenches.
The other measures are provisions for crash-blackout measures, early camouflaging of vital plants and installations and updating and rehearsing evacuation plans, a letter to the chief secretaries of all states and administrators of Union Territories (UTs) said.
