Sanna Irshad Mattoo, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Kashmiri photojournalist, said on Tuesday that she was stopped from flying abroad by immigration authorities at the Delhi airport for the second time this year.
She had been stopped in July as well.
“I was on my way to receive the Pulitzer award 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,” Mattoo tweeted.
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 traveling internationally despite holding a valid US visa and ticket. pic.twitter.com/btGPiLlasK
— Sanna Irshad Mattoo (@mattoosanna) October 18, 2022
“This is the second time I have been stopped without reason or cause. Despite reaching out to several officials after what happened few months ago, but I never received [any] response. Being able to attend the award ceremony was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me,” she added.
In July, she had been stopped while flying from Delhi to Paris for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of the winners of an award.
Mattoo, who has been working as an independent photojournalist in Jammu and Kashmir since 2018, was one of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winners in the Feature Photography category for coverage of the COVID-19 crisis in India as part of a Reuters team.
Adnan Abidi, Amit Dave, and the late Danish Sidiqqui are the other three Reuters photojournalists who have won the prestigious award.
Mattoo then claimed that the immigration authorities gave her no reason for denying her flight other than to say she couldn’t travel abroad due to restrictions.
Jammu and Kashmir police officials told the news agency PTI that she had been placed on a no-fly list without explaining why.