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Sri Lankan police falsely identify US human rights activist as suspected bomber
By Jenny Noyes
An official Sri Lanka police Twitter account has been deleted after it misidentified an American human rights activist as a suspected Sri Lankan terrorist, causing a social media furore.
The account, @SriLankaPolice2, was deleted on Friday following the post late on Thursday.
Amara Majeed, US Muslim activist falsely identified by Sri Lankan police as a terror suspect.
The account had posted the names and photos of three women and two men on Twitter that they said were at-large suspects in the Easter Sunday bombing attacks that killed more than 250 people.
One of the photographs, said to depict suspect Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya, was in fact 22-year-old American Muslim activist Amara Majeed.
Ms Majeed quickly reacted with posts to both Twitter and Facebook that she had been falsely identified.
"This is obviously completely false and frankly, considering that Muslim communities are already greatly afflicted with issues of surveillance, I don't need more false accusations and scrutiny," Ms Majeed wrote in her Facebook post.
"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."
Ms Majeed, who lives in Baltimore and is the daughter of Sri Lankan immigrants, penned an open letter to Donald Trump in 2015 for the teen magazine Seventeen on the effect of his anti-Muslim rhetoric.
She is also the author of a book, The Foreigners, which aims to combat harmful stereotypes about Islam.
Sri Lankan police replied to Ms Majeed with an apology for the "inconvenience."
Ms Majeed has been approached for comment.
with AAP