Cartoonists groups and NGOs around the world are rallying around local cartoonist Zunar and condemning the Malaysian goverment to bar him from travelling abroad.

Washington-based Cartoonist Rights Network International executive director Robert Russell said the Malaysian authorities' harassment of Zunar was tantamount to a war of attrition against him.

Among others, Russell cited Zunar's ongoing sedition case and previous raids on his office as examples of such attempts to weaken the cartoonist, whose real name is Zulkiflee Anwar Ul-Haque.

"We were worried about this for some time. The authorities must lift this illegal infringement upon Zunar's rights," said Russell.

The Swiss Cartooning for Peace Foundation said Zunar, like other editorial cartoonists who are threatened, imprisoned or exiled, deserved the full support of the international community.

Its vice-presidents, Marie Heuzé and Patrick Chappatte, jointly said that cartoonists tested and expanded the bounds of freedom of expression, and thereby, extended the people's own freedom.

"We are proud to support Zunar, a courageous and recognised cartoonist of Malaysia who has received the 2016 Cartooning for Peace Award of the City of Geneva on May 3rd in Switzerland to mark World Press Freedom Day," they said.

They also called upon the Malaysian authorities to clarify the reasons behind the travel ban imposed on Zunar.

Zunar had at the time said he was barred from leaving the country for Singapore, purportedly due to "police orders".

Other cartoonist organisations that voiced their support for Zunar included Holland-based The Cartoon Movement and the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, meanwhile, had called for an immediate and unconditional lift of the ban imposed and for all charges against Zunar to be dropped.

"Malaysia's persistent harassment of cartoonist Zunar has made him a symbol of the worsening state of press freedom in the country," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also echoed CPJ’s call, together with its Malaysian affiliate, the National Union of Journalists Malaysia.

"The IFJ demands that the ban be immediately lifted, and that freedom of movement is ensured for all media workers within the country," it said.

Zunar has received international accolades for his political cartoons which often lampooned Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor.

Several of his books, including collections of cartoons published on Malaysiakini, had been banned.

He also faced multiple charges for making allegedly seditious tweets on the sodomy conviction of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.