Pulitzer winning Kashmiri journalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo prevented from flying abroad
The Delhi airport immigration authorities allegedly provided no reason for the ban.
Sanna Irshad Mattoo, a Kashmiri photojournalist who was one of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winners, said that she was stopped from flying from Delhi to Paris on Saturday.
The immigration officials at Delhi airport allegedly did not give her a reason for not being allowed to leave the country. Mattoo had a valid French visa, according to The Wire.
Mattoo in a tweet said that she was going to Paris for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of 10 winners of the Serendipity Arles Grant 2020.
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. Despite procuring a French visa, I was stopped at the immigration desk at Delhi airport. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/OoEdBBWNw6
— Sanna Irshad Mattoo (@mattoosanna) July 2, 2022
This is not the first time a Kashmiri journalist has been stopped from leaving India without a reason.
In 2019, journalist Gowhar Geelani was stopped at the Delhi airport from travelling to a journalists’ conference in Germany.
When Geelani had asked an immigration officer to show a written order seeking to stop him from flying, he was allegedly told that no explanation could be provided to him.
