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Photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner Sanna Irshad Mattoo
Photo: SOPA Images / LightRocket / Getty Images
A Pulitzer Prize-winning Kashmiri photojournalist has been prevented by Indian immigration authorities from flying to the United States to accept the prestigious media award.
She had a ticket and a valid visa, the journalist said on Wednesday.
Sanna Irshad Mattoo was due to fly to New York on Monday to accept the US award but was stopped by officers at New Delhi airport, the 28-year-old said.
She was stopped for no reason, the officials then canceled her ticket.
Mattoo was traveling with two colleagues from the Reuters news agency, with whom she had received this year's award for reportage photography.
Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave and Danish Siddiqui were awarded for photos of the Covid 19 pandemic in India.
Siddiqui did not live to see the award.
He was killed in Afghanistan in July while documenting fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban.
According to Mattoo, there were no complaints about the departure of the other two journalists.
She does not know why she was prevented from traveling.
'Is it about my work?
is it something else
The problem is I don't know what the problem is," she told the Associated Press.
A similar incident happened in July.
At that time she wanted to travel to Paris as one of ten nominees for the Serendipity Arles Prize.
No reasons were given here either.
It may be about the focus of the journalist's work.
Working as a freelance photojournalist since 2018, Mattoo chronicles life in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where insurgents fight for the region's independence or union with neighboring Pakistan.
cpa/AP