NEW DELHI — The body of Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters photojournalist who was killed in Afghanistan this month, was badly mutilated while in the custody of the Taliban, officials said this week.

The revelation comes amid concern that the fighting in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have carried out an aggressive military offensive since the United States withdrew nearly all its troops, has become increasingly brutal as peace talks have stalled.

Mr. Siddiqui, 38, an Indian national who took some of the most memorable news photographs from South Asia in recent years, was killed on the morning of July 16, when Afghan commandos he had accompanied to Spin Boldak, a border district recently captured by the Taliban, were ambushed. Initial photographs from the scene showed Mr. Siddiqui’s body with multiple wounds but fully intact.

But by that evening, when the body was handed over to the Red Cross and transferred to a hospital in the southern city of Kandahar, it had been badly mutilated, according to two Indian officials and two Afghan health officials there. The mutilation was reported by an Indian website, Newslaundry, in the days after Mr. Siddiqui’s killing.

The New York Times reviewed multiple photographs, some provided by Indian officials and others taken by Afghan health workers at the hospital, that showed Mr. Siddiqui’s body had been mutilated. One Indian official said that the body had nearly a dozen bullet wounds and that there were tire marks on Mr. Siddiqui’s face and chest.

One of the health officials in Kandahar said that the body, along with Mr. Siddiqui’s press vest, had reached the city’s main hospital around 8 p.m. on the day he was killed. His face was unrecognizable, said the official, who added that he could not determine exactly what had been done to the body.

A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, denied any wrongdoing on the part of the insurgents, saying that they were under orders to treat bodies with respect and to hand them over to local elders or the Red Cross. But the Taliban were in control of the area at the time, and some photographs showed what appeared to be the group’s fighters standing around Mr. Siddiqui’s body, which was then intact.

“Danish always chose to be on the front lines so that abuses and atrocities could not remain hidden,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director for Human Rights Watch. “The brutality with which Taliban fighters punished Danish proves the abuses that he was documenting.”

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Carrying Mr. Siddiqui’s coffin in New Delhi on July 18.
Carrying Mr. Siddiqui’s coffin in New Delhi on July 18.Credit...Altaf Qadri/Associated Press
Human Rights Watch and other watchdog groups say the Taliban have carried out a series of revenge killings in Kandahar Province, where some of the most brutal episodes in Afghanistan’s last four war-torn decades have occurred.

The Taliban rose to power from the southern province in the 1990s, promising to end atrocities carried out by local militias. In recent years, Afghan forces led by Abdul Raziq, a general who was assassinated in 2018, were accused of ruthless tactics as they fought the Taliban in Kandahar. Spin Boldak, where Mr. Siddiqui died, was General Raziq’s hometown. Reports have emerged of the Taliban detaining, and in some cases executing, people who had been associated with the general.

There are conflicting reports about what happened on July 16, as the Afghan special forces with whom Mr. Siddiqui was traveling tried to retake Spin Boldak.

Accounts from local officials, as well as Taliban members, suggest that Mr. Siddiqui and the Afghan unit’s commander were killed in a crossfire when their convoy was ambushed from multiple directions. Their bodies were left on the battlefield as the rest of the unit retreated, according to this version of events.

Some news outlets reported that Mr. Siddiqui might have been captured alive by the Taliban and then executed. Those reports could not be confirmed. One Indian official, however, said that some of Mr. Siddiqui’s wounds appeared to be from gunshots at close range.

Three days before his killing, Mr. Siddiqui posted a video on Twitter in which he said several rocket-propelled grenades had struck the armored vehicle in which he was traveling.

His body, in a closed coffin, was returned to his home in New Delhi two days after his death. The narrow alley leading to his house was crowded with neighbors and friends. Colleagues — many of whom had accompanied him as he covered some of India’s most tumultuous recent events, such as mass protests and the coronavirus pandemic — wept, hugged and consoled one another.

Mr. Siddiqui was buried late at night in a cemetery at Jamia Millia Islamia, the university in New Delhi from which he had graduated. At a candlelight vigil, reporters held pictures of him wearing his press vest. The text read simply, “Danish Siddiqui, Killed in Afghanistan.”

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Body of Reuters Photographer Was Mutilated in Taliban Custody, Officials Say

KABUL, Afghanistan — Haji Sakhi decided to flee Afghanistan the night he saw two Taliban members drag a young woman from her home and lash her on the sidewalk. Terrified for his three daughters, he crammed his family into a car the next morning and barreled down winding dirt roads into Pakistan.

That was more than 20 years ago. They returned to Kabul, the capital, nearly a decade later after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime. But now, with the Taliban sweeping across parts of the country as American forces withdraw, Mr. Sakhi, 68, fears a return of the violence he witnessed that night. This time, he says, his family is not waiting so long to leave.

“I’m not scared of leaving belongings behind, I’m not scared of starting everything from scratch,” said Mr. Sakhi, who recently applied for Turkish visas for himself, his wife, their three daughters and one son. “What I’m scared of is the Taliban.”


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Haji Sakhi at his home in Kabul.
Haji Sakhi at his home in Kabul.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Across Afghanistan, a mass exodus is unfolding as the Taliban press on in their brutal military campaign, which has captured more than half the country’s 400-odd districts, according to some assessments. And with that, fears of a harsh return to extremist rule or a bloody civil war between ethnically aligned militias have taken hold.

So far this year around 330,000 Afghans have been displaced, more than half of them fleeing their homes since the United States began its withdrawal in May, according to the United Nations.

Many have flooded into makeshift tent camps or crowded into relatives’ homes in cities, the last islands of government control in many provinces. Thousands more are trying to secure passports and visas to leave the country altogether. Others have crammed into smugglers’ pickup trucks in a desperate bid to slip illegally over the border.

In recent weeks, the number of Afghans crossing the border illegally shot up around 30 to 40 percent compared to the period before international troops began withdrawing in May, according to the International Organization for Migration. At least 30,000 people are now fleeing every week.

The sudden flight is an early sign of a looming refugee crisis, aid agencies warn, and has raised alarms in neighboring countries and Europe that the violence that has escalated since the start of the withdrawal is already spilling across the country’s borders.
“Afghanistan is on the brink of another humanitarian crisis,” Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said earlier this month. “A failure to reach a peace agreement in Afghanistan and stem the current violence will lead to further displacement.”

The sudden exodus harks back to earlier periods of heightened unrest: Millions poured out of Afghanistan in the years after the Soviets invaded in 1979. A decade later, more fled as the Soviets withdrew and the country fell into civil war. The exodus continued when the Taliban came to power in 1996.

Afghans currently account for one of the world’s largest populations of refugees and asylum seekers — around 3 million people — and represent the second highest number of asylum claims in Europe, after Syria.

Now the country is at the precipice of another bloody chapter, but the new outpouring of Afghans comes as attitudes toward migrants have hardened around the world.

After forging a repatriation deal in 2016 to stem migration from war-afflicted countries, Europe has deported tens of thousands of Afghan migrants. Hundreds of thousands more are being forced back by Turkey as well as by neighboring Pakistan and Iran, which together host around 90 percent of displaced Afghans worldwide and have deported a record number of Afghans in recent years.

Coronavirus restrictions have also made legal and illegal migration more difficult, as countries closed their borders and scaled back refugee programs, pushing thousands of migrants to travel to Europe along more dangerous routes.

In the United States, the growing backlog for the Special Immigration Visa program — available to Afghans who face threats because of their work with the U.S. government — has left roughly 20,000 eligible Afghans and their families trapped in bureaucratic limbo in Afghanistan. The Biden administration has come under heavy pressure to protect Afghan allies as the United States withdraws troops and air support amid a Taliban insurgency.

Still, as the fighting between Taliban, government and militia forces intensifies and civilian casualties reach record highs, many Afghans remain determined to leave.

One recent morning in Kabul, people gathered outside the passport office. Within hours, a line snaked around three city blocks and past a mural of migrants with an ominous warning: “Don’t jeopardize you and your family’s lives. Migration is not the solution.”

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A mural warning against migration served as a backdrop for people lining up outside the passport office in Kabul.
A mural warning against migration served as a backdrop for people lining up outside the passport office in Kabul.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Few people were deterred.

“I need to get a passport and get the hell out of this country,” said Abdullah, 41, who like many in Afghanistan goes by only one name.

Abdullah, who drives a taxi between Kabul and Ghazni, a trading hub in the southeast, remembers speeding toward the capital when fighting erupted recently, picking up a group of Afghan troops who demanded a ride along the way. Two days later, his boss called to say that Taliban fighters had asked about a taxi driver seen evacuating security forces — and had recited Abdullah’s license plate.

Terrified, Abdullah says he will find any way to leave.

“Trying to leave legally is costly, and if we go illegally it is dangerous,” he said. “But right now the country is even more dangerous.”



“I need to get a passport and get the hell out of this country,” said Abdullah, 41.
“I need to get a passport and get the hell out of this country,” said Abdullah, 41.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Farther west, a surge of Afghans have flocked to Zaranj, a hub for illegal migration in Nimruz Province, where smugglers’ pickup trucks snake south down the borderlands to Iran each day.

In March, around 200 cars left for the Iranian border each day from Zaranj — a 300 percent increase from 2019, according to David Mansfield, a migration researcher and consultant with the British Overseas Development Institute. By early July, 450 cars were heading to the border each day.

Those who can afford it pay thousands of dollars to travel to Turkey and then Europe. But many more strike pay-as-you-go deals with smugglers, planning to work illegally in Iran until they can afford the next leg of the journey.

“We don’t have any money or means of getting a visa,” said Mohammad Adib, who is considering migrating illegally to Iran.

Mr. Adib fled his home in Qala-e-Naw, in the country’s northwest, in early July after the Taliban laid siege to the city one night. As dawn broke, he says the paw-paw-paw of gunfire was replaced with wails from neighbors. Electricity lines littered the ground. Doors of houses were broken down. The road was stained with blood.

“We cannot find another way out,” he said.

In Tajikistan, officials recently announced that the country was prepared to host around 100,000 Afghan refugees, after the country received around 1,600 Afghans this month.

Other neighboring countries have expressed less willingness to host an outpouring of Afghans, instead beefing up their border security and warning that their economies cannot handle a new influx of refugees. Leaders in Central Europe have called to increase their border security as well, fearing the current exodus could swell into a crisis similar to that in 2015 when nearly a million, mostly Syrian migrants entered Europe.

But in Afghanistan, about half of the country’s population is already in need of humanitarian assistance this year — twice as many people as last year and six times as many as four years ago, according to the United Nations.

Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi, 40, borrowed $1,000 to bring 36 relatives to Kabul after the Taliban attacked his village in Malistan district. Today his three-room apartment, situated on the edge of the city, feels more like a crowded shelter than a home.



Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi borrowed $1,000 to bring 36 relatives to Kabul after the Taliban attacked his village in Malistan district. 
Mohammad Nabi Mohammadi borrowed $1,000 to bring 36 relatives to Kabul after the Taliban attacked his village in Malistan district. Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
The men sleep in one large living room, women stay in the other and the children cram into the apartment’s one small bedroom alongside bags of clothes and cleaning supplies. Mr. Mohammadi borrows more money from neighbors to buy enough bread and chicken — which have nearly doubled in price as food prices surge — to feed everyone.

Now, sinking further into debt with no relief in sight, he is at a loss for what to do.

“These families are sick, they are traumatized, they have lost everything,” he said, standing near his kitchen’s one countertop — out of earshot from his family. “Unless the situation improves, I don’t know what we will do.”


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Jan Bibi, left, 40, lost her husband, who was a militiaman, during the fighting in Malestan. She now resides at Mr. Mohammadi’s house in Kabul.
Jan Bibi, left, 40, lost her husband, who was a militiaman, during the fighting in Malestan. She now resides at Mr. Mohammadi’s house in Kabul.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
Asad Timory contributed reporting from Herat; Zabihullah Ghazi from Laghman; Fahim Abed and Jim Huylebroek from Kabul.



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As Fears Grip Afghanistan, Hundreds of Thousands Flee

Great Britain won a record eighth swimming medal in Tokyo while Duncan Scott became the most decorated British Olympian at a Games after winning silver in the men's 4x100m medley relay.

The quartet of Scott, Adam Peaty, Luke Greenbank and James Guy finished 0.73 seconds behind gold-medal winners USA.

Italy finished third to take bronze.

The silver was Scott's fourth medal in Tokyo as Britain signed off their most successful Olympics in the pool.

The USA needed a world record time of three minutes 26.78 seconds to beat Great Britain to gold in the final event of the swimming.

The win also meant a fifth gold medal in Tokyo for American superstar Caeleb Dressel. He joins compatriots Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi, as well as East Germany's Kristin Otto, as the only swimmers to win as many as five golds at a single Olympics.

British swimmers sign off a hugely successful Olympics

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Great Britain's swimmers sign off the Tokyo Olympics with an impressive medal haul of four golds, three silvers and one bronze to complete an incredible turnaround in fortunes in the pool.

Less than a decade ago they finished London 2012 with just three medals - one silver and two bronze - and even at the last Olympics in Rio they returned home with just the solitary gold medal.

Now they leave Tokyo with eight medals - by far the most picked up in any sport by Great Britain at these Games.

Scott's three silvers and one gold also means he has six Olympic medals overall - only Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny have won more.

"I have a lot of good team-mates," Scott told BBC Sport. "I'm very fortunate to be part of some excellent relay teams."

Peaty, who got Britain's first gold medal of the Games when he won the men's 100m breaststroke, leaves with three medals - two of those golds.

But to underline just how much progress Great Britain has made in swimming, the quartet were disappointed they did not sign off with a final gold, rather than celebrating a record-breaking medal tally.

"That is the standard we are at now," Peaty said.

"We are not looking at bronzes or silvers we are looking how to get gold. That is my mindset."

Dressel leads USA medal charge
Before helping the USA to gold in the relay, Dressel took an individual gold with a dominant win the men's 50m freestyle.

The 24-year-old won with an Olympic record time of 21.07 seconds to add to his 100m freestyle, 100m butterfly and 4x100m freestyle relay titles in Tokyo.

Britain's Ben Proud finished fifth in the race as France's Florent Manaudou took the silver and Bruno Fratus of Brazil the bronze.

Dressel's team-mate Bobby Finke added to USA's swimming medals collection by winning gold in the men's 1500m freestyle. Ukraine's Mykhailo Romanchuk won the silver while Florian Wellbrock of Germany took the bronze as Britain's Dan Jervis finished fifth.

Emma McKeon won the women's 50m freestyle to secure her 10th Olympic medal - more than any other Australian athlete in history.

The 27-year-old touched home in an Olympic record time of 23.81 seconds to claim her third gold medal at the Games and her sixth overall in Tokyo. Her 10 Olympic medals moves her ahead of Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe.

Swedish world record-holder Sarah Sjostrom finished second with Denmark's Pernille Blume in third.

Finally, Australia won gold in the women's 4x100m medley relay as USA won the silver and Canada took the bronze.

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Tokyo Olympics: Great Britain win record eighth swimming medal

Great Britain's Charlotte Worthington recovered from a fall on her first run to win a thrilling gold in the women's BMX park freestyle Olympic final.

The 25-year-old, who gave up work as a chef to focus on the sport in 2017, delivered an action-packed score of 97.50 to snatch gold on her second run.

The gripping action set the stage for Declan Brooks to seal bronze in the men's event, Britain's fourth BMX medal of a remarkable week.

The 25-year-old watched on as riders failed to surpass his mark of 90.80, as Australia's Martin Logan took gold on 93.30.

Brooks' medal followed shortly after Worthington's superb victory. With no score of significance on the board after her fall, she simply had to deliver on run two and did so by becoming the first woman to land a 360-degree backflip in competition - the same trick that left her on the floor during run one.

She celebrated her score wildly and then watched as four rivals - including favourite Hannah Roberts - failed to usurp her mark.

"It was incredible," said Worthington when asked about the key backflip.

"I've not been doing that trick for so long but we've been trying to find that big banger trick and when we did we thought, 'this is the one'. If it wasn't for Hannah Roberts, we wouldn't be doing these tricks.

"It's a lot of hard work paid off."

Worthington's team celebrated wildly when her score of 97.50 was read
Worthington's team celebrated wildly when her score of 97.50 was read out
Riders were ranked on their best score from their two runs and Worthington's 97.50 transferred all of the pressure to American Roberts, who appeared to be cruising to the title after she put up 96.10 on run one.

The 19-year-old - who had thrown her bike in the emotion of completing her first run - could not finish her second 60-second stint on the Tokyo course and, as the last rider to compete, her concession confirmed Worthington's champion status.

Roberts, the winner of all three World Cup events in BMX freestyle's last complete season in 2019 - looked shocked at the turnaround.

"There was definitely a lot going on," said Roberts, who beat Switzerland's Nikita Ducarroz into bronze. "My first run was good and I know there were places I could improve. I slipped up and hurt my ankle.

"I'm honoured to take second place to Charlotte. It's definitely an exciting time for our sport."

Medals for Worthington and Brooks follow gold and silver respectively for Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte in BMX racing at the Games.

Worthington, a late convert to BMX, opted to give her role up as a chef in 2017 and told BBC Sport she had been "sweating it out in the kitchen for over 40 hours a week and barely had any time or energy to ride".

The move came with what she called a "lifestyle change" and she was keen to point out how personal development in her life away from the bike had laid the framework for her to sharpen her skills on it.

Worthington has said that the delay to Tokyo 2020 gave her more time to develop the tricks she would need on the big stage.

She has now won British, European and Olympic titles.

'I've cried but I'm stoked'
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Declan Brooks almost missed Tokyo 2020 because of injury
Brooks, who almost missed out on the Games after knocking himself out during the World Championships in June, watched on patiently as late riders in Tokyo failed to pass his bronze-medal mark.

Visibly emotional, he told BBC Sport: "I've just cried for the last couple of minutes.

"It's an unbelievable journey I've had on the way here. I am just so stoked. I don't think it will sink in for a while. For Charlotte to do her things today and put a score and tricks up there that we had never seen before, it was even harder focusing.

"I knew the run I wanted to pull, I still missed a few bits out but, to be honest, I think that is all I had."

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Tokyo Olympics: Charlotte Worthington wins BMX freestyle gold for Great Britain

Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu has been arrested on suspicion of rape.

Officers in Beijing said the investigation centred on online allegations that the star, 30, had "deceived young women multiple times into having sexual relations".

The first accusation came early this month when a woman said he had assaulted her while she was drunk.

Mr Wu, one of China's biggest celebrities, has denied all the allegations of assault.

The first to accuse him was 19-year-old student Du Meizhu, who posted on social media that she had met Mr Wu when she was 17.

She said she had been invited to a party at his home, where she was pressured to drink alcohol and woke up in his bed the next day.

Ms Du said seven other women had told her Mr Wu had seduced them with promises of jobs and other opportunities. She said some were minors.

At least 24 more women have since come forward alleging inappropriate behaviour.

Mr Wu has denied plying Ms Du with alcohol, and also rejected other allegations that he had enticed girls to have sex in return for benefits, raped girls while they were unconscious, and had sex with minors. Under Chinese law, under-18s are considered minors, while the age of sexual consent is 14.

"There was no 'groupie sex'! There was no 'underage'!' he wrote on his social media account after the allegations were made.

"If there were this kind of thing, please everyone relax, I would put myself in jail!"

His lawyers are suing Ms Du for defamation.

The incident comes as awareness of gender-based violence in China has grown, sparked by the #MeToo movement in 2018, where women voiced their experiences of sexual harassment, sometimes involving high-profile figures.

Mr Wu first shot to fame as a member of the K-pop boyband EXO. He left in 2014 to launch a successful solo career as a singer, actor, model and talent show judge.

Why a superstar sparked China's consent debate
Brands drop Chinese-Canadian star over sex allegations

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Kris Wu: K-Pop star arrested on suspicion of rape

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