Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui did not die in the crossfire between Afghan forces and the Taliban, as is being pedalled in the media.
On the contrary, Siddiqui was brutally murdered, and his body abused on orders of Pakistan’s notorious Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) after he was injured, India Narrative has authoritatively learnt.
In an investigative report that appeared in the American publication Washington Examiner the paper said that it's wrong to say that Reuters photojournalist Danish Siddiqui was killed while covering fighting in Afghanistan. “He was not simply killed in a crossfire, nor was he simply collateral damage; rather, he was brutally murdered by the Taliban.”
Citing the various sources and Afghanistan’s local authorities, the report paints a clear picture of the mystery surrounding Siddiqui’s death. The photo-journalist was “embedded” with the Afghan National Army team to cover fighting between the Afghan forces and the Taliban at Spin Boldak near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. While the Afghan army was near the custom check post, it came under heavy fire from the Taliban. Siddiqui was injured in the cross-fire after the Afghan unit split into two.
Three Afghan soldiers then carried the injured Siddiqui, who was very much alive, to a nearby mosque to administer first aid.
It was while he was being treated in the mosque that word spread and seeped into Taliban nodes that an injured media person was being in the mosque. It was then, that a Taliban unit swooped over and captured the mosque.
The situation became really ugly when the captors came to know that Siddiqui was an Indian national. Consequently, he was killed after body was riddled with bullets fired at close range. The brutalisation took place after that. The photojournalists head was battered and his body disfigured. “The photos that have appeared in the media do not reveal the actual situation. Siddiqui’s head and face have been brutalised beyond recognition,” an insider told India Narrative. The insider pointed out that the Taliban took the extreme step on the orders of the ISI. “It was done with a clear message to India. Do not mess around in Afghanistan. If you do the consequences would be horrific.” Obviously, Siddiqui became the victim of mind games or psy-ops that are being played by India and Pakistan to shape the Afghan transition.
Citing an Indian source, Washington Examiner reported that the Taliban deliberately hunted down Danish, executed him and mutilated his dead body as a prized trophy. The three Afghan soldiers who tried to save him were also killed by the Taliban.
“The Taliban are always brutal but likely took their cruelty to a new level because Siddiqui was Indian. They also want to signal that Western journalists are not welcome in any Afghanistan they control and that they expect Taliban propaganda to be accepted as truth,” says the report.
Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and terrorists from Lashkar e Taiba (LeT), Jaish e Mohammad (JeM) are also fighting along with the Taliban.
While some have argued that the Taliban of 20 years ago is not the Taliban of today, this perception does not stand scrutiny of a a fact-check. The extremist group has not made any intellectual revision to its ideological discourse. Moreover, its recent actions, such as beheading a translator and disposing his body on the roadside, and the arrest of Afghan comedian Nazar Mohammad, who was filmed by members of the Taliban being beaten and insulted before he was murdered, once again reveals that bestial brutality is part of the Taliban’s DNA.
Read More: Danish Siddiqui becomes first Indian casualty in the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan
Read More: India-built Salma dam attacked by Taliban again becomes symbol of two clashing worldviews
