A journalist from Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir has been barred by Indian officials from travelling to Sri Lanka without giving any reason for the action.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the journalist Aakash Hassan said that Immigration officials at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport barred him from boarding a flight to Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Aakash wrote on his Twitter handle, “I was headed to report on the current crises in the country [Sri Lanka]. The immigration officials took my passport, boarding pass and made me sit in a room for four hours”. He added that after making him wait for hours, the officials handed over his passport and boarding pass to him with a red rejection stamp: ‘Cancelled Without Prejudice’.
He pointed out that the officials didn’t give any reason for why he was not allowed. A staff from the airlines he was travelling in told him that officials had directed them to offload his luggage from the aircraft, he said, adding he was questioned by two officials about his background and travel purpose.
Earlier this month, Kashmiri photojournalist, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, was denied permission to travel to Paris to attend a scheduled photography exhibition.
In a tweet, Sanna Mattoo, had said, “I was scheduled to travel from Delhi to Paris for a book launch and photography exhibition as one of 10 award winners of the Serendipity Arles grant 2020. Despite procuring a French visa, I was stopped at the immigration desk at Delhi airport.”
“I was not given any reason but told I would not be able to travel internationally,” she had added.
