Danish Siddiqui was not killed mistakenly by a stray bullet caught in a crossfire but was deliberately executed and his body mutilated due to his Indian nationality by the Taliban, who with this act threw all the international conventions for a toss.

An American report, says he was traveling with the Afghan troops to the Spin Boldak region near the Pakistani border to cover the fight for control of the lucrative border crossing. As they neared customs post they were attacked by the Taliban splitting the convoy of troops, while Danish was injured by shrapnel.

He along with the other men in his car took refuge in a mosque and received first aid there, but as the word spread about his presence Taliban attacked the mosque and took him out alive. When his identity was verified as an Indian national, he was executed brutally in cold blood, his body was mutilated with bullets and a car deliberately ran over him.

The report has also accessed images where it was seen that he was beaten around his head and his entire body was riddled with bullets.

This American report also condemns the whitewashing of this heinous crime by the Taliban. Certain sections of Indian media had reported that his death happened as a result of him being caught up in a crossfire, but the reality is far from different.

Indian media had published articles where whitewashing and denying of the Taliban’s role was done. The whitewashing went as far as claiming the Taliban were sorry for their mistake and treated the corpse of the dead journalist respectfully.

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Ravish Kumar a prominent and award-winning journalist had earlier posted on Facebook that he wished thousands of curses to the “gun which fired the bullets” without outright naming the Taliban. Interestingly, Indian media had shifted the blame to the bullet from the Taliban, questions need to be asked why this story was reported falsely and at whose behest.

Also, the Indian Lutyens commentariat which is usually outspoken when artists and comedians are either arrested or their free speech curtailed is yet to condemn the brutal killing of a popular Afghan comedian Khasha Zwan. He was abused, slapped, and made fun of in a video posted by the Taliban before being brutally executed. Popular national and international comics too are silent about his brutal killing. This whitewashing of terrorism needs to be stopped.