Bomb blast at Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting in India kills 3, wounds dozens
- A man claiming to be a former member of the church who now disagreed with its beliefs handed himself into police after the suspected bomb blast
- There are nearly 60,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in India, where about 2 per cent of its 1.4 billion people are Christian, according to census data
More than 2,000 people were attending a three-day Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting at a convention centre in Kalamassery near the port city of Kochi on Sunday when the blast ripped through the crowd.
“At about 9:40am approximately there was an explosion in Zamra International Convention Centre in which one person died and 36 are undergoing treatment,” Director General of Police of Kerala Darvesh Saheb told reporters. “We will find out who is behind this and take stringent action … preliminary investigation shows it was an IED (improvised explosive device) blast.”
One woman died immediately, and another died hours later of her wounds. Local assistant police commissioner PV Baby said on Monday that a 12-year-old girl had also died after suffering from burns covering much of her body. “There are three to four people with serious injuries,” Baby added.
A man handed himself in to the police after releasing a video message on social media and aired on television channels, in which he claimed to be a former member of the church who now disagreed with its beliefs. The suspect was identified by police as Dominic Martin, who posted a video on Facebook claiming responsibility for the blast before surrendering to the police.
Police said they are “examining his claims and the reasons given for carrying out the act”, according to The Times of India.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported at least three “blasts” had occurred inside the convention centre.