A Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist from Indian-administered Kashmir says she was barred from traveling abroad by Indian authorities, who gave no valid reasons for the refusal. Sanna Irshad Mattoo told Al Jazeera that she was to travel to Paris from New Delhi on Saturday for a book launch and photo exhibition as one of the 10 winners of the Serendipity Arles Grant 2020. Mattoo, a resident of Srinagar, won the Pulitzer along with three other members of the Reuters news agency for their photographs of India’s COVID-19 crisis. “My flight was scheduled for Saturday afternoon. At immigration, I was put aside and told to wait three hours. I kept asking officials about the reasons until I missed the flight,” said the 28-year-old journalist. Mattoo said she was later told she cannot fly overseas. “But they didn’t give any explanation,” he said. “This is crazy, nothing against me. One of the officials told me that I should check the word from Kashmir where the instructions had come from. I don’t understand why they stopped me,” Sana told Al Jazeera by phone from New Delhi airport. “I am very disappointed. I’ve been looking forward to this opportunity for a long time.” Mattoo took to Twitter to share photos of her tickets and passport stamped “Cancelled without paradise” by Indian immigration officials. I was scheduled to travel from Delhi to Paris today for a book launch and photo exhibition as one of the 10 winners of the Serendipity Arles 2020 grant. Despite purchasing a French visa, I was stopped at the immigration office at the Delhi airport. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/OoEdBBWNw6 — Sanna Irshad Mattoo (@mattoosanna) July 2, 2022 Journalists and media watchdogs criticized the move, calling it a “disturbing pattern”. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the Indian government “must immediately end its practice of banning Kashmiri journalists from traveling abroad.” “The travel bans are part of a systematic pattern of harassment against Kashmiri journalists, who have increasingly faced arbitrary arrests, frivolous legal cases, threats, physical attacks and raids since August 2019,” it said on Twitter. In recent years, several Indian journalists and activists have alleged that they have been prevented from traveling abroad by Indian authorities. In April this year, Aakar Patel, the former head of Amnesty International in India, said he was not allowed to fly to the United States because of a criminal case filed against the organization’s India rights office in 2019. Authorities said Patel was on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s “circular watch,” which prevents a person wanted by law enforcement from flying abroad. Days earlier, prominent Indian journalist Rana Ayyub was also barred from boarding her flight to London where she was due to speak at an event on the targeting of journalists in India. She was later allowed to fly after approaching a court. Both Patel and Ayyub are vocal critics of the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2019, Kashmiri journalist Gowhar Geelani claimed he was stopped at New Delhi airport from traveling to Europe.
