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Weeks after Irshad Mattoo incident, another Kashmiri scribe stopped from travelling abroad
Kashmiri scribe Aakash Hassan said immigration officials took his passport, boarding pass and made him sit in a room for four hours; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Sanna Irshad Mattoo had on July 2 been stopped from travelling to France
In the second such instance this month, a Kashmir-based journalist claimed to have been stopped from travelling outside the country at the New Delhi airport.
Aakash Hassan, who writes for the UK-based newspaper, said the immigration officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday/ evening barred him from boarding a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he was to report on the ongoing economic and political turmoil.
“The immigration officials took my passport, boarding pass and made me sit in a room for the last four hours. The officials are not giving me any reason for why I am not allowed,” he said in a series of tweets on Tuesday evening, before finally being disallowed to board the flight.
Elaborating on the line of questioning from airport authorities, Hassan said, “I was questioned by two officials about my background, travel purpose. After making me wait for five hours, without even providing water to drink. I have been handed over my passport and boarding pass with a red rejection stamp: ‘Cancelled without Prejudice’.”
Notably, Kashmir’s first Pulitzer Prize-winning woman photojournalist, Sanna Irshad Mattoo had on July 2 been stopped by the authorities from travelling to France for a book launch and photography exhibition at the New Delhi airport.
Mattoo, 28, had at the time said that she was scheduled to travel from New Delhi to Paris as one of the ten award winners of the Serendipity Arles Grant 2020, but despite procuring a French visa, she was stopped at the immigration desk at the airport and stopped from boarding the flight.
Following the abrogation of Article 370, Kashmiri journalist and author Gowhar Geelani had also been disallowed to travel to Germany to attend a programme with Deutsche Welle back in 2019.
Mufti, journalists’ body condemn incident
The incident drew a range of reaction from journalists and political figures back in Jammu and Kashmir.
People’s Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti was quick to condemn the authorities on Wednesday. Citing a recent statement of the Chief Justice of India on journalists’ significance in a democracy, she wrote, “Immediately after CJIs remarks on the role of journalists in a democracy, @AakashHassan was barred from travelling abroad. It is no secret that GOI wants to crush the very backbone & fourth pillar of our democracy because of its intolerance to the truth.”
The Journalist Federation of Kashmir also condemned the “continued harassment and intimidation” of journalists in the region, saying “The ugly pattern of harassing journalists in Kashmir has amplified over the past few years and debarring them from travel is seen as a tactic by the authorities to coerce journalists into not reporting facts on the ground, people in power aren’t comfortable with,”
“JFK strongly condemns the pattern of intimidation and views it as continued attacks on freedom of press in Kashmir. Journalists in Kashmir have always worked under perilous conditions, holding up values of press freedom in the face of dangers to life and liberty,” the body’s official statement further read.
