India blocks Pulitzer Prize-winning Kashmiri photojournalist from leaving the country

July 3 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Kashmiri photojournalist Sana Irshad Mattoo, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has denounced that the Indian authorities have not allowed her to leave the country and travel to France, where she was to participate in a book launch and photography exhibition.

The photographer has denounced that she was not allowed to board the plane at Delhi International Airport this Saturday without giving her any explanation except that she could not travel abroad, as the journalist herself explained on Twitter.

“I was scheduled to travel from Delhi to Paris today for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of the ten winners of the 2020 Serendipity Arles award,” she explained.

“Despite having a French visa, they stopped me at the immigration desk at Delhi airport. They didn’t give me any reason except that I can’t travel abroad,” he said.

At the moment the authorities have not clarified the case, but sources from the Jammu and Kashmir state police have indicated that Mattoo is on the list of journalists who cannot travel abroad.

Another Kashmiri journalist, Gowhar Geelani, was prevented from traveling to Germany in September 2019 following a ban by immigration authorities at Delhi Airport, and last year authorities in Jammu and Kashmir prevented journalist and academic Zahid Rafiq from traveling to the United States to teach class in a university.

Mattoo, 28, works as a cameraman for the Reuters news agency and won the 2022 Pulitzer for a photograph about the second wave of coronavirus infections in India.

Pakistan and India have disputed the region of historical Kashmir since 1947 and have fought over it in two of the three wars they have had since independence from the United Kingdom. In 1999 there was a brief but intense military confrontation between the two nuclear powers and since 2003 a fragile truce has been maintained.

Tension has recently increased due to the strong repression of the Indian security forces and the suspension of the autonomy of the Jammu and Kashmir region since August 2019.