For The Second Time, A Pulitzer-Winning Kashmiri Journalist Stopped Traveling Abroad

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Sanna Irshad Mattoo

India Tomorrow

SRINAGAR—For the second time, Pulitzer-winning Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo was stopped from travelling abroad.

 Sanna was scheduled to leave for New York to receive her Pulitzer award when immigration authorities stopped her at the Delhi airport.

“I was on my way to receive the Pulitzer award (@Pulitzerprizes) in New York, but I was stopped at immigration at Delhi airport and barred from travelling internationally despite holding a valid US visa and ticket,” Sanna tweeted.

She said this was the second time that she had been stopped. “Despite reaching out to several officials after what happened a few months ago, I never received any response. Being able to attend the award ceremony was a once in a lifetime,” she said.

In July, Sanna was not allowed to fly to Paris for a photography exhibition. “I was scheduled to travel from Delhi to Paris today for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of 10 award winners of the Serendipity Arles Grant 2020. However, despite procuring a French visa, I was stopped at the immigration desk at Delhi airport,” she had tweeted.

Authorities did not give her any reason to stop her from travelling abroad. “I was not given any reason but told I would not be able to travel internationally,” she said.

In May, Sanna Irshad Mattoo won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in the feature photography category for 2022. She is among the three from India to win the award this year. Besides, Sanna, slain Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui and Adnan Abidi have won the award for their images about Covid’s toll in India.

Sanna, who holds a Master’s in Convergent Journalism from the Central University of Kashmir, has her work published in international media outlets, including Al Jazeera, TIME, and TRT World. She has also done a fellowship with the prestigious Magnum Foundation in 2021.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based watchdog, termed restrictions on Mattoo as “arbitrary and excessive”.

“There is no reason why Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo, who had all the right travel documents and has won a Pulitzer – one of the most prestigious journalism awards – should have been prevented from travelling abroad…This decision is arbitrary and excessive. Indian authorities must immediately cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against journalists covering the situation in Kashmir,” Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, said in a statement on Wednesday.

In July, another Kashmir journalist Aakash Hassan was barred from boarding a flight to Sri Lanka at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.

 “Immigration officials at IGI airport New Delhi barred me from boarding a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka. I was headed to report on the current crises in the country. Instead, the immigration officials took my passport and boarding pass and have made me sit in a room for the last four hours,” Aakash tweeted.

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