The crackdown in Kashmir last year was difficult to show to the world, as Indian authorities announced an unprecedented blockade, including a curfew and cutting off phone and internet connections.
However, Dar Yasin, Mukhtar Khan and Channi Anand, three AP photojournalists, tried their best to let the world see what was going on.
Women chant protest slogans as Indian police spray water cannons and fire into the air during a march in Srinagar on May 9, 2019.
Weaving through wire fences, sometimes hiding in strangers’ homes, hiding cameras in vegetable bags, three photojournalists captured scenes of protests, police activities and the daily lives of Kashmiri people,
`It was a cat and mouse game,` Yasin recalled on May 4.
Yashin and Kahn operate in Srinagar, the largest city in Kashmir, while Anand is in neighboring Jammu district.
`I’m shocked, I can’t believe it,` he said, calling the winning photos encouragement for the work he has done for the past 20 years.
`This honor continues AP’s tradition of award-winning great journalism,` said Gary Pruitt, AP president and CEO.
In a year when protests took place around the world, two AP reporters, Dieu Nalio Chery and Rebecca Blackwell, also won the Pulitzer Prize for their news photography of clashes between police and anti-government protesters in Haiti.
`These five photojournalists captured remarkable and beautiful images, despite dangerous and difficult circumstances, even at the risk of losing their lives,` commented AP photo director David Ake.
Indian paramilitary soldiers smashed motorbikes parked outside a school when clashing with students protesting the rape of a 3-year-old girl in Srinagar on May 14, 2019.
Sally Buzebee, AP editor-in-chief, called the winning work Kashmir `a testament to the skill, courage, ingenuity and teamwork` of Dar, Mukhtar, Channi and their colleagues, praising `
They brought glory to AP with the 54th Pulitzer Prize. Last year, AP news agency won this award with photos, videos, and reportage about the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Conflict has raged for decades in Kashmir, the Muslim Himalayan region that separates India and Pakistan and is claimed by both sides.
Landmark tensions erupted in August 2019, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped Kashmir of its autonomy and deployed military forces to the area, imposing a curfew and setting up wire fences to block access.
India declared this a necessary move to suppress protests and attacks by rebels demanding independence or control over Pakistan.
Because communication lines were cut off, AP reporters were forced to go into the field, facing both protesters and government troops.
`The situation at that time was really difficult,` Khan said, `but we managed to take pictures again.`
After discovering someone carrying luggage towards the airport, reporters decided to ask them to report the news.
So the reporters went to Srinagar airport, found strangers willing to help them carry memory cards and drives to New Delhi, and contacted AP after landing in the capital.
Villagers mourn 11-year-old Aatif Mir during a funeral in Hajin village, north of Srinagar, on March 22.
Some people refused because they were afraid of getting into trouble with the authorities, Yasin said.
`It’s not just the story of the people I photographed, it’s also my story,` he expressed.
See the award-winning series of photos about Kashmir
The annual Pulitzer Prize is named after pioneering newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, editor of the New York World, and has been awarded at Columbia University since 1917. The prize covers many fields, including important