NEW DELHI
\nIndian authorities have prevented an award-winning photographer from flying to the United States to collect her Pulitzer Prize, the latest of several Kashmiri journalists barred from leaving the country. Sanna Irshad Mattoo was one of four journalists working for Reuters news agency that took home the prestigious award for feature photography this year.
\nThe 28-year-old has won plaudits for documenting life in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu Kashmir (IIOJK) , a disputed and highly militarised Himalayan territory home to a decades-old insurgency. Mattoo was stopped by immigration authorities at New Delhi airport late Tuesday and prevented from boarding while two of her colleagues were permitted to leave the country.
\nShe later tweeted a picture of her ticket that was stamped \u201ccancelled without prejudice\u201d.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know what to say… this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me,\u201d Mattoo, who is also a fellow of the prestigious Magnum Foundation, told AFP.
\n\u201cOnly I was stopped without any reason and the others were allowed to go. Maybe it has something to do with me being a Kashmiri.\u201d
\nTuesday was the second time this year that Mattoo was prevented from leaving India.
\nIn July she was stopped in a similar manner at the same airport while on her way to Paris for a book launch and photography exhibition.
\n\u201cI was on my way to receive the Pulitzer award in New York but I was stopped at immigration at Delhi airport and barred from traveling internationally despite holding a valid US visa and ticket,\u201d She wrote.
\nIndia has sought to entrench its control of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu Kashmir, which is also claimed in full by neighbouring Pakistan and which has been a constant source of tension between the nuclear-armed archrivals.
\nThousands have been killed there since the start of a rebellion against Indian rule in 1989, and more than half a million troops are permanently stationed in the region.
\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s government stripped the territory of its limited autonomy in 2019, severing internet connections for months and detaining political leaders to forestall an anticipated backlash.
\nForeign journalists have been barred from IIOJK and local reporters based in the territory say they have come under pressure to tone down their work.
\nSeveral other Kashmiri journalists have also been preventing by authorities from travelling abroad in the past three years.
\nIndependent journalist Aakash Hassan, a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper, was not allowed to board a flight from New Delhi to Sri Lanka for work in July.
\nHe told AFP that months later, he has still received no information from authorities as to why he was denied permission to travel.
\n\u201cGiven the pattern, it looks like it only happens to Kashmiri journalists,\u201d Hassan told AFP.
\nThe decision to prevent Mattoo from leaving was \u201carbitrary and excessive\u201d, Beh Lih Yi of the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement.
\nShe called on India to cease \u201call forms of harassment and intimidation\u201d against journalists working in IIOJK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI Indian authorities have prevented an award-winning photographer from flying to the United States to collect her Pulitzer Prize, the latest of several Kashmiri journalists barred from leaving the country. Sanna Irshad Mattoo was one of four journalists working for Reuters news agency that took home the prestigious award for feature photography this year. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[195,11142,7273,11141,11140],"class_list":{"0":"post-290380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-india","9":"tag-kashmiri-journalist","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-pulitzer-winning","12":"tag-travelling"},"yoast_head":"\n