A photoshopped image has landed activist Teesta Setalvad in a soup. The image, which she tweeted on Friday afternoon, juxtaposed a picture of the deceased American journalist James Foley just before his beheading by an ISIS member, against a religious image. The text of the tweet read, "Chilling reality", ostensibly to draw a parallel between different kinds of religious extremism.

However, many on social media did not take kindly to Setalvad's message. Within minutes, Twitter was ablaze with protests saying she had hurt religious sentiments with her insensitive post and had drawn incongruous parallels. Setalvad later tweeted an apology and deleted the offending tweet. "Image was still be (sic) worked upon put (sic) by mistake no intention to upset anyone apologies (sic)," she tweeted soon after the tweet-storm began.

An online petition from one Prashant Kumar from Bangalore also surfaced, asking the Prime Minister's Office to revoke the Padma Shri awarded to her in 2007. Others called for her arrest, saying she had committed an offence under the IT Act. "Invoking Hindu gods to make a point about ISIS is uncalled for and excessive. Uncalled for provocation from Teesta," tweeted Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi. "Certainly @TeestaSetalvad not (sic) as naive as she's claiming to be. Image deliberately put to hurt religious sentiments of Hindus. #MustBePunished," tweeted @RoshanSdrprop. A handful of Twitter users claimed to have either filed or be planning to file an FIR against the activist. There were others who called for a more measured response. "Dear Hindus who are rightly outraged at Teesta's insulting depiction. Outrage but don't call for her arrest. This kind of extremism is harmful," tweeted @rupasubramanya.

Meanwhile, on her blog, Setalvad said the error came to be committed as she was in a rush. "Looking at the visual as a whole, I did think the illustration needed reworking as it may be interpreted differently by different people. However, in the mad rush that I was in, I tweeted the same with my caption, 'Chilling'," she wrote.