Sri Lankan police were forced into making a retraction earlier today, after it emerged they had falsely identified an American university student as a suspect wanted in the Easter Sunday bombing attacks.
Earlier the Sri Lankan police released images of purported suspects, including a photograph of a woman they claimed was “Abdul Cater Fathima Khadhiya”.
It quickly emerged that the woman in question was Amara Majeed, a Baltimore local who is a student at Brown University.
“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,” she tweeted.
“What a thing to wake up to! 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.”
“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.”
Sri Lankan police were forced to issue a statement apologising for the error, the latest in a series of errors by the security forces.
