Kashmiri journalist Gowhar Geelani barred from leaving India
JournalismPakistan.com | Published: 4 September 2019
Join our WhatsApp channel
Gowhar Geelani, a Kashmiri journalist, was stopped by immigration officials from traveling to Germany. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Indian authorities to allow him to travel freely.Summary
NEW DELHI — Indian authorities should allow journalist Gowhar Geelani to travel freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Wednesday.
On August 31, immigration officials at the Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi stopped Geelani, a Kashmiri broadcast journalist who has frequently reported from Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir state, and told him he was not allowed to travel to Germany, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.
Officials told Geelani that the Jammu and Kashmir state government had “flagged the issue” of his travel, but declined to give him any more details on why he was barred from leaving the country, he told CPJ.
Geelani said he has a valid passport and visa, and he told digital news outlet Scroll that the immigration officers said there was no issue with his documentation.
“There is no reason why Gowhar Geelani, who had all the right travel documents, should have been prevented from traveling abroad,” said Aliya Iftikhar, CPJ’s senior Asia researcher. “Indian authorities should immediately cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against journalists covering the situation in Kashmir.”
Geelani was planning to fly to Germany to attend a journalist training program as a prerequisite to joining German broadcast agency Deutsche Welle’s Delhi bureau, he told CPJ. He previously worked as an editor with the agency in Germany, and has recently worked as an independent journalist and commentator based in Srinagar, he said.
Last month, Geelani published Kashmir: Rage and Reason, a book on the Kashmir conflict and its history.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversees the country’s immigration authorities, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment via email.
For the past month, there has been a political crisis in Jammu and Kashmir, with an ongoing communications blackout and reports of journalist detentions, as CPJ has documented. — A CPJ News Alert
Key Points
- Gowhar Geelani was barred from leaving India by immigration officials.
- He has valid travel documents and intended to attend a training program in Germany.
- Indian authorities did not provide a clear explanation for the travel ban.
- CPJ denounces harassment of journalists in Kashmir amid ongoing tensions.
- Geelani has reported extensively on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Relevant Topics
Ask AI: Understand this story your way
AI EnabledDig deeper, ask anything — get instant context, background, and clarity.
Disclaimer: This feature is powered by AI and is intended to help readers explore and understand news stories more easily. While we strive for accuracy, AI-generated responses may occasionally be incomplete or reflect limitations in the underlying model. This feature does not represent the editorial views of JournalismPakistan. For our full, verified reporting, please refer to the original article.
