Amara Majeed, author and founder of The Hijab Project who was featured in BBC 100 Women in 2015, was in for a shock when she woke up on Thursday. The Sri Lanka police had identified her as one of the terror suspects in the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 253 people, and released her photograph, along with that of two other women accused of executing the attacks.
The Sri Lanka police had on Thursday released photographs of six suspects, including the three women, believed to be from the Islamic State.
Majeed’s photo carried the name, Fathima Khadiya. The activist took to Twitter on Thursday to highlight the blunder committed by the Sri Lanka police.
“Hello everyone! I have this morning been FALSELY identified by the Sri Lankan government as one of the ISIS terrorists that have committed the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. What a thing to wake up to!” she posted.
Majeed further said she didn’t need more false accusations and scrutiny especially since the Muslim communities were already “greatly afflicted with issues of surveillance”.
“This is obviously completely false and frankly, considering that our communities are already greatly afflicted with issues of surveillance, I don’t need more false accusations and scrutiny,” read another tweet by the activist.
“Please stop implicating and associating me with these horrific attacks. And next time, be more diligent about releasing such information that has the potential to deeply violate someone’s family and community,” Majeed concluded.
This is obviously completely false and frankly, considering that our communities are already greatly afflicted with issues of surveillance, I don’t need more false accusations and scrutiny. (2/3)#SriLankaAttack #SriLanka #SriLankaBlasts
— Amara Majeed (@AmaraMajeed1) April 25, 2019
Please stop implicating and associating me with these horrific attacks. And next time, be more diligent about releasing such information that has the potential to deeply violate someone’s family and community. (3/3) #SriLankaAttack #SriLanka #SriLankaBlasts
— Amara Majeed (@AmaraMajeed1) April 25, 2019
The Sri Lanka police later issued a statement apologising for the blunder. The police said the name of the wanted terrorist was Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya but the picture was not of the accused.
“The individual pictured is not wanted for questioning,” said the police.
UPDATE: Sri Lankan police issues apology for wrongly using my photographs in the WANTED list of terror suspects.#EasterSundayAttacksSL #SriLankaAttack #SriLanka #SriLankaBlasts pic.twitter.com/ClejPkh6OF
— Amara Majeed (@AmaraMajeed1) April 25, 2019
Majeed, whose parents are from Sri Lanka, was born in Baltimore in the US. She wrote a book, The Foreigners, to spread awareness about Islam and combat stereotypes about the religion.
Nine suicide bombers, believed to be the members of a local terror group called National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through three churches and three luxury hotels on Easter Sunday.
The police have intensified search and arrested 16 more suspects, taking the number of those in custody to 76.
Many of the arrested people have suspected links to the NTJ, the group blamed for the bombings.
However, on Tuesday, the Islamic State or the ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks without providing any major evidence.
Sri Lanka also revised the death toll from Easter Sunday’s string of bombings down to 253 people from the previous estimate of 359. Calculation error was cited as the reason for the larger death toll.
Authorities have deployed thousands of troops to help police carry out search operations.
Over 5,000 army personnel have been deployed around the country.