India suspends passports of dozens of Kashmiris citing security reasons: Report

Indian authorities have suspended the passports of dozens of Kashmiris including journalists and political activists, terming them as “security threats to India”.  

In what observers describe as an unprecedented move to stifle dissent in the region, several Kashmiris living either in Indian-controlled Kashmir or overseas  have received emails from the Indian government, over the past 10 days, notifying them that their passports had been suspended.

The regional passport office in Srinagar referred to Section 10(3) of The Passports Act, 1967, with the claim that the affected parties were a threat to Indian security. 

Srinagar Passport Officer Devinder Singh, quoted by Indian news and opinion website The Wire, said that there were “instructions from intelligence agencies” on the basis of which some passports of Kashmiri residents are being impounded. 

“We have got instructions to suspend the passports of dozens of persons but I can’t disclose the exact number. Some of them have been intimated about the action being taken,” Singh said.

Sources have said the list includes 98 to 200 people from Indian-administered Kashmir. The officials, however, have not confirmed the actual figures.

The list of the Kashmiri residents whose passports are being impounded has been prepared by the Indian security agencies.

According to sources the list includes journalists, academicians, lawyers, political activists and others.

In the past, the Indian government has imposed restrictions on the free travel of journalists from Kashmir.

Srinagar-based photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Sanna Irshad Mattoo was stopped by the Indian authorities from flying to the US to receive the award.

Presently four journalists from Kashmir are languishing in Indian jails facing anti-terror investigations.

In September 2022, Amnesty International criticized the Indian government saying that it was targeting all neutral sources of information on Jammu and Kashmir.

"There is a silence achieved on all dissent through heavy-handed repression which has spread fear and uncertainty in the region," Amnesty International had said at a briefing.

According to a Human Rights Watch report, at least 35 Kashmiri journalists have faced “police interrogation, raids, threats, physical assault or criminal cases” in connection to their work since 2019 when the Hindu nationalist government in New Delhi led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led revoked Article 370 which gave the Himalayan region a special status.

Experts say the revocation of passports is an act to punish dissent, and for decades the Indian government has been punishing Kashmiris by long delays or complete denial of passports, citing “security reasons” to justify the denial.

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