Pulitzer-winning Kashmiri photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo has claimed that she was stopped from flying to the United States to receive the Pulitzer award, despite having a valid visa and ticket.
The 28-year-old photojournalist was scheduled to fly to New York on Monday when she was stopped by the immigration authorities at the Delhi airport.
Mattoo was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of COVID-19 crisis in India, along with Reuters photographers Adnan Abidi, Amit Dave and the late Danish Siddiqui, who was killed during an assignment in Afghanistan in July last year.
“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 travelling internationally despite holding a valid US visa and ticket,” Mattoo tweeted on Tuesday.
She said that this was the second time that she was stopped from travelling abroad in the past few months.
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On July 2, Mattoo was stopped by immigration officials and prevented from travelling to Paris in France where she was going to attend a book launch and photography exhibition.
She had said that she was stopped by officials “without giving any reason”.