Pulitzer award-winning Kashmiri journalist stopped at Delhi airport

Sanna Irshad Mattoo, a Pulitzer award-winning Kashmiri photojournalist was reportedly not allowed to fly from Delhi to Paris here on Saturday.

Mattoo is one of the 10 award winners of the Serendipity Arles grant 2020. Calling out the immigration officials at the Delhi International airport, the journalist who was on her way for a book launch and photography exhibition in Paris was stopped despite having a French visa.

According to Mattoo, the immigration officers did not give her a proper reply.

This is not the first time a Kashmiri journalist has been stopped at the airport unjustifiably.

In 2019, journalist Gowhar Geelani was stopped at the Delhi airport from travelling to a journalists’ conference in Germany.

Who is Sanna Irshad Mattoo

Sanna Irshad Mattoo is a photojournalist from Srinagar, Kashmir. In May this year, she was awarded the Pulitzer for her work covering the COVID-19 crisis in India. She shared the award with three other journalists – Amit Dave, Adnan Abidi and the late Danish Siddiqui.

She currently contributes to Reuters as a multimedia journalist.

Mattoo was Magnum Foundation’s Photography and Social Justice Fellow in 2021. She is a post-graduate in convergent journalism from the Central University of Kashmir. Her work has been published in many international publications like Al Jazeera, TIME, TRT World and South China Morning Post.