Media News

Why Pro-Pak Kashmiri Photo-Journo Was Stopped From Travelling To US

October 20, 2022
The Commune

On 18 October 2022, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, an anti-India photo journalist had tweeted about being denied permission to leave India to attend the Pulitzer Prize event in the US.

She said “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 traveling internationally despite holding a valid US visa and ticket.”

She added that this is the second time she has been stopped without reason or cause.

“Despite reaching out to several officials after what happened few months ago but I never received ay response. Being able to attend the award ceremony was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me.”, she said.

Her tweet drew varied reactions from netizens with many questioning her double standards over propagating separatism while holding an Indian passport.

Many Islamist handles like the Hurriyat Conference condemned the India for “denying the right to travel to Kashmiris”.

However, the Indian government’s move to ground her before she could take off comes against the backdrop of her problematic background and associations.

Sanna Irshad Mattoo is a Kashmir-based photo-journalist, who has made her anti-India stance known on several occasions, within India and abroad.

In 2021, she became a “Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellow”. She works for Reuters and had declared herself ‘Kashmiri’ instead of ‘Indian’.

In 2022, Mattoo won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography. On Oct 18, she was stopped from traveling to the US by Indian Immigration authorities at Delhi airport. A few instances of her anti-India opinions and online posts :

She is a terrorist sympathizer and frequently refers to terrorists as “rebels” in her social media posts. Her social media reflects terrorist sympathizing posts about Afzal Guru, Burhan Wani and others. She has referred to cop killer, Maqbool Bhat as ‘Father of the Nation’.

Mattoo also peddles the Pakistani propaganda by referring to Jammu and Kashmir as ‘Indian administered Kashmir’ or ‘Indian controlled Kashmir”.

Once she shared a post from Sarahah of an anonymous user who wrote “There is no power on earth who can abduct a nation forever. The system of disbelievers can work but oppression won’t. Prayers from Pakistan” to which she said “Indeed, Shukria”.

She had compared patriotic Indians to Hitler’s Nazis. One of her posts, displays a picture of Hitler’s propaganda book “Mein Kamph” captioned “Hitler’s Hindus – The rise and rise of India’s Nazi loving nationalists.”

Sanna Irshad Mattoo’s dubious academic record has been questioned, as well. She claims to have studied at “Magnum Foundation” which is funded by the controversial left-liberal George Soros who is also said to have major influence with the Pulitzer Prize event.

Much has been written about George Soros, the American billionaire investor and businessman who is known for his personal distaste of “nationalism”. He is the founder of the “Open Society Foundations” (OSF ), an umbrella organization that includes a network of foundations and charities. Open Society Foundation’s (OSF) professed object is “to work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people.” This object serves as the foundation for OSF’s often indiscreet activities in both closed and democratic societies that includes hefty funding of political NGOs, left-leaning “charities” as well as left-liberal news and media houses.

The Open Society Foundation (OSF) is well known for funding highly biased political “NGO”s worldwide including India.

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