Cyril Almeida, a prominent Pakistani journalist was banned from leaving Pakistan for a column he wrote.

Story highlights

Journalist Cyril Almeida was placed on Pakistan's Exit Control List for a column he wrote

His placement on the list caused a social media storm, with people tweeting under the hashtag #StandWithCyril

Islamabad, Pakistan CNN  — 

A leading Pakistani journalist has been banned from leaving the country after writing a column that exposed significant rifts between the civilian government and the military.

The report, written by journalist Cyril Almeida for the ‘The Daily Dawn’ – one of Pakistan’s leading English language papers – on October 6, said the civilian government had clashed with military chiefs over the issue of homegrown militancy in Pakistan.

Almeida, who was attempting to fly out on a holiday on Monday evening was informed that he had been placed on the Pakistan’s Exit Control List, which prevented him from leaving the country.

Placed on the ‘Exit Control List’

The Exit Control List is a border control system that is maintained under ordinance by the government of Pakistan. It allows the government to ban people whose names appear on the system from exiting Pakistan.

Almeida tweeted that he had been placed on the list Monday night, causing a social media storm with journalist, analysts and supporters tweeting under the hashtag #StandWithCyril.

‘Verified, cross-checked and fact-checked’

Paramilitary troopers look towards a building where suspected militants are thought to be hiding on the third day of a gunfight between the Indian army and suspected militants in Pampore, south of Srinagar on October 12, 2016. / AFP / TAUSEEF MUSTAFA        (Photo credit should read TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)
India-Pakistan tensions flaring in Kashmir
02:15 - Source: CNN

Almeida’s column was published amid a backdrop of increasing tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir. It highlights tensions between senior members of Pakistan’s civilian government and the director of ISI, the country’s military intelligence organization.

The Pakistani government responded swiftly to Almeida’s column, dismissing it as “an amalgamation of fiction and fabrication” in a statement.

The Daily Dawn’s editor Zafar Abbas issued a statement Tuesday, asserting that Almeida’s column was “verified, cross checked and fact checked.”

He also said the government should refrain from “targeting the messenger and scapegoating the country’s most respected newspaper in a malicious campaign.”

‘Stern action’ called for ‘speculative reporting’

An Indian army soldier takes up a position near the site of a gunbattle between Indian army soldiers and rebels inside an army brigade headquarters near the border with Pakistan, known as the Line of Control (LoC), in Uri on September 18, 2016.
Militants armed with guns and grenades killed 17 soldiers in a raid September 18 on an army base in Indian-administered Kashmir, the worst such attack for more than a decade in the disputed Himalayan region. / AFP / TAUSEEF MUSTAFA        (Photo credit should read TAUSEEF MUSTAFA/AFP/Getty Images)
US, UN urge calm after new Kashmir flareup
02:34 - Source: CNN

In a statement released Monday, the Pakistani prime minister’s office stated that a high level meeting on the report had taken place between the prime minister, the chief army staff, interior minister and the director general of the ISI, with calls for “stern action” against “those responsible for speculative reporting.”

Yet the public response to the story has caused some to question if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s democratically-elected government is losing support in Pakistan.

Analyst and author of Military Inc, Ayesha Siddiqa, told CNN that Almeida’s placement on the Exit Control List is “against the norms of democracy.”

Amnesty International called the travel ban on Almeida “a crude intimidation tactic designed to silence journalists and stop them from doing their jobs,” in a statement released Tuesday.

Columnist Mosharraf Zaidi told CNN that Almeida’s report had confirmed what was already widely known in Pakistan. He asserted, however, that the significance of Almeida’s report lay in how forcefully he had “disrupted the national conversation” by placing the issue of tensions between civilian government and military into the public arena.