Indian photojournalist for Reuters covered the clashes between Taliban and Afghan forces after the departure of American troops and allied forces.
Le Monde with Reuters
The parents of Danish Siddiqui, photographer of Reuters killed last July in Afghanistan, launched a procedure against the Taliban with the International Criminal Court (ICC), announced Tuesday, March 22 a family lawyer.
Avi Singh, lawyer based in New Delhi, announced at an online press conference that the parents of Danish Siddiqui had seized the ICC, based in The Hague, to prosecute for “war crimes” against Six Taliban leaders as well as against other unidentified Islamist commanders, who tangled their son because he was photojournalist and because he was an Indian national.
Danish Siddiqui had joined Afghanistan to cover the Taliban campaign to reclaim the country on the background of the American troops and allied forces. Photographer for Reuters since 2010, Danish Siddiqui was part of the agency’s photographers’ team Awarded in 2018 by the Pulitzer price of the reporting photography for its coverage of the Rohingyas refugee crisis, having fled Burma.
“illegally detained, tortured and killed”
When he was killed on July 16, 2021, he was integrated as a journalist in a team of Afghan special forces. He then covered the attempt, finally aborted, Afghan government forces to resume the Taliban control of the city of Spin Boldak, one of the main points of passage between Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the province of Kandahar, in the province of Kandahar. south of the country.
The 38-year-old photojournalist was “illegally detained, tortured and killed by the Taliban, and his body was mutilated,” explain Avi Singh and Danish Siddiqui’s family in a Press release published after the press conference. “These acts and the homicide are constitutive not only of a murder, but also a crime against humanity and a crime of war,” they denounce.
Post-mortem mutilations
According to a commander of the former Afghan special forces who had integrated Danish Siddiqui for this report, the photojournalist was mistakenly left on the spot with two members of the commandos when the Afghan forces withdrew from Spin Boldak on the backdrop of ‘Intense fighting with the Taliban.
Afghan security managers and Indian government officials told Reuters that the journalist’s body had undergone post-mortem mutilation while he was in the Taliban hands, based on information from intelligence services, photos and the examination of the body. Reuters had on his side know that he could not check independently if the Taliban had deliberately killed Danish Siddiqui or profane his body.
The Spokesperson for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied last August the information that Danish Siddiqui had been captured and executed by the Islamist movement, describing “totally false” the declarations of the leaders of the Afghan security forces and of the Indian government.