SRINAGAR: Two Kashmiri photojournalists Dar Yasin and Mukhtar Khan, and their Jammu colleague Chani Ananad were among several other scribes, poets and authors who were bestowed with the Pulitzer Prizes ceremony at Columbia University on Saturday, reports reaching from the US said.

Three Jammu Kashmir photojournalists Mukhtar Khan (second from L-R), Dar Yasin and Channi Annand in a group photograph after receiving their Pultizer Prize on June 26, 2022. They work for AP and AP and were given the prize for their coverage of post-2019 Kashmir.

The awards presented at the weekend covered the Pulitzers announced in 2020 and 2021. The winners of the 2022 awards, which were announced in May, will be recognized at a separate ceremony in October, reports added.

Dar and Khan received the Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of Kashmir post-August 5, along with their Jammu colleague, Anand.

“Receiving the Pulitzer Prize at Columbia University in New York,” Mukhtar Khan wrote on his Facebook wall. “What a great honour. A big thanks to both families AP and home. I am humbled.”

The three Jammu and Kashmir scribes are photo-journalists working for the American news gatherer, Associated Press.

Mukhtar Khan has been working with the AP since 2000. He has been covering Kashmir throughout.

Yasin started his career as a videographer in 2004 as a freelancer with the AP. In 2006, he joined the agency as a full-fledged photographer. During his around 16 years of career, Dar Yasin has covered the developments across Kashmir and has flown out to cover the Rohingya crisis, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and other places.

Anand is their colleague who covers the developments in Jammu for the AP was also facilitated.

The photographs for which the three AP newsmen were awarded are about the life in the lockdown after the undoing of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019. The Pultizer jury termed their photographs as “striking images of life” in post-August 2019 Kashmir “executed through a communications blackout”. Jointly the honour carries the US $ 15000.

On May 10, 2022, another Kashmir photojournalist, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, 28, bagged a Pulitizer Prize that she will be sharing with three others from the Reuters team.

Pulitzer is the world’s most prestigious award for journalism. Though most of the American media has always had an edge, in certain international categories, non-native Americans also get recognition for their works. The Pulitzers are generally regarded as the highest honour that US-based journalists and organizations can receive.

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