By: LekshmiSajeev
Siddiqui Ahamad Danish, a Delhi-based photojournalist, who was in Sri Lanka to cover the aftermath of Easter bombings was arrested by Sri Lankan police for alleged unauthorised entry into a school, news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Friday (3).
Danish, who works for Reuters news agency in the national capital was taken into custody when he allegedly attempted to forcibly enter a school in Negombo city to speak to its authorities.
Local media reports claimed that the journalist had tried to enter the school to get information of a student who was killed in the bombing of St Sebastian’s Church when parents who were at the school at the time alerted the police.
“He was arrested on the charges of unauthorised entry and was later remanded by the Negombo magistrate till May 15,” PTI quoted police as saying.
Over 250 people were killed and 500 were injured in a series of bomb blasts that jolted luxury hotels and churches across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday on April 21. The Islamic State terror group had claimed responsibility for the attacks. It had also released video of men who it claimed were the bombers, pledging allegiance to the group.
In the wake of the attacks, Sri Lankan authorities, last week, banned two different local Islamist groups, including the National Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ), and the splinter group Jamathei Millathu Ibrahim (JMI). These two terror outfits are said to be affiliates of the Islamic States or Daesh.
