Danish Siddiqui, a chief photographer of Reuters who was based in Mumbai, was killed in the violence in Afghanistan, according to Indian and Afghan media outlets.
Afghanistan's Tolo News reported that Siddiqui had been covering the situation in Kandahar "over the last few days". The Taliban has increased its control over Kandahar, driving out forces of the Afghan national government in recent days.
Siddiqui was part of a seven-member Reuters photography team that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for feature photography. Siddiqui had then covered the Rohingya crisis that spread to Bangladesh from Myanmar. He had started as a TV journalist, who then ventured into photojournalism.
Siddiqui had also captured the world's attention with chilling images of the Delhi riots last year and the Covid-19 pandemic and migrant exodus, according to a The Week report run by bdnews24.com.
On July 13, Siddiqui had tweeted a video of him travelling in a vehicle that was targeted by RPGs in Afghanistan. He then tweeted, "The Humvee in which I was travelling with other special forces was also targeted by at least 3 RPG rounds and other weapons. I was lucky to be safe and capture the visual of one of the rockets hitting the armour plate overhead."