Lawfare, General Lawfare – Journalists

Aakash Hassan, a Kashmiri journalist who writes for The Guardian, said that he was stopped on Tuesday at the Delhi airport from flying to Sri Lanka’s Colombo. The immigration officials at the Delhi airport allegedly did not give him a reason for not being allowed to leave the country.

In a series of tweets, Hassan said that he was on the way to Colombo to report on Sri Lanka’s worst-ever economic crisis. After allegedly taking his passport and boarding pass, the immigration officials made the journalist sit in a room for nearly five hours. While waiting, Hassan said he was not even offered water to drink.

“A staff from the airlines I was travelling in told me that officials have directed them to offload my luggage from the aircraft,” he said. “I was questioned by two officials about my background, travel purpose.” Finally, the journalist said he was given his passport and the boarding pass with a “Cancelled Without Prejudice” rejection stamp on it.