FOUR INDIAN PHOTOJOURNALISTS HONOURED WITH PULITZER PRIZE
NEW YORK: Slain photojournalist Danish Siddiqui is among four Indians honoured with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize 2022 in the feature photography category. Siddiqui and his colleagues Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo and Amit Dave from the Reuters news agency won the award, announced on Monday, for “images of COVID’s toll in India that balanced intimacy and devastation, while offering viewers a heightened sense of place”, according to The Pulitzer Prizes website.
Their work was moved from the breaking news photography category by the judges.
Siddiqui, 38, was on assignment in Afghanistan last year when he died. The award-winning journalist was killed in July last while covering clashes between Afghan troops and the Taliban in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar city.
This is the second time Siddiqui has won the Pulitzer.
MUMBAI: Santoor virtuoso Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma, who took the stringed instrument to the global stage and successfully straddled the worlds of classical and film music, died here on Tuesday following a heart attack. He was 84.
Sharma, one of India’s most well known classical musicians, died between 8 and 8.30 am at his Pali Hill residence. He was due to perform in Bhopal next week.
“He had a severe heart attack in the morning... He was active and was to perform in Bhopal next week. He was on regular dialysis but was still active,” a family source said.
A Padma Vibhushan recipient, Sharma was born in Jammu in 1938 and is believed to be the first musician to have played Indian classical music on the santoor, a folk instrument from Jammu and Kashmir.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind were among those who condoled Sharma’s death. Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s office said Sharma will be accorded a state funeral.