The passports of at least two journalists and a political activist in Kashmir have been suspended, terming them “security threats to India”, The Wire reported. Srinagar passport officer Devinder Singh told the news website that he received “instructions to suspend the passports of dozens of persons”.

Singh refused to disclose the “exact number”. The report quoted anonymous sources to suggest that between 98 and 200 passports are being suspended, including those belonging to journalists, academicians, lawyers and political activists.

The Wire did not identify the two journalists but said one is a senior journalist in Srinagar who previously worked with Hindustan Times in Delhi; the other works for a Delhi-based magazine. Neither of them are accused in any criminal case, and they said they hadn’t been given any explanation by the passport authority. 

The political activist “works” with the Peoples Democratic Party and is a “close aide of Waheed Parra, the party’s youth president”. 

All three were informed about their passports being suspended by emails from the regional passport office in Srinagar. The emails invoked section 10(3) of the Passports Act, which empowers the passport authority to impound or revoke the passport if it “deems it necessary so to do in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of India, friendly relations of India with any foreign country, or in the interests of the general public”.

Last year, Srinagar-based photojournalist Sanna Irshad Mattoo, who was on her way to the Pulitzer award ceremony in New York, was stopped from flying to the US by immigration authorities at New Delhi airport. Mattoo was part of the Reuters team that won the Pulitzer for the coverage of the Covid pandemic in India.

Newslaundry has previously reported on how Kashmir journalists are often targeted by the state for their work. Many of them are now worried about a “fifth column” in their midst. Read all about it here.