Homemade Bombs Detonated at Jehovah’s Witness Convention in India

Police in India’s southern state of Kerala announced on Sunday that three women were killed and more than 50 people were injured by homemade bombs detonated at a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention.

A man claiming to be a former member of the religion quickly took responsibility for the bombing in a Facebook post and surrendered to the police.

The police said two women were killed on Sunday, and a 12-year-old girl who suffered burns on more than 95 percent of her body died from her injuries on Monday morning. Seventeen of the other injuries were described as serious. Four victims are reportedly in critical condition with burns on more than half of their bodies.

Police said the suspect, Dominic Martin, was “in custody” and “being questioned” in the city of Kochi, about six miles from Kalamassery, the town where the Jehovah’s Witnesses convention was held. 

“We are still trying to ascertain the veracity of his statement; it will take some time. We are not in a position to confirm his involvement in the case right now; investigation is ongoing,” a police spokesman said.

In his six-minute video statement on Facebook, Martin said he took “full responsibility” for bombing the Zamra International Convention Center, where hundreds of Jehovah’s Witnesses were gathered for a convention.

Martin said he planted the bombs because after 16 years of practicing the religion, he had concluded the Jehovah’s Witnesses were “seditious,” “dangerous,” and “anti-national.” He said leaders of the faith had refused to implement his suggestions to “correct” their teachings.

“When an entire congregation is taught using abusive language that the society is going to be destroyed, that we should not mingle with others or share food with others, I figured that the organization was wrong and its teachings were dangerous to the country,” he said.

Martin claimed the Jehovah’s Witnesses taught their children to hate people outside the religion.

“Children are taught not to sing the national anthem. When they grow up, they are taught not to vote, join the military, or accept a government job,” he said.

The Supreme Court of India ruled in 1986 that three Jehovah’s Witnesses were not guilty of disrespecting the Indian national anthem when they said their religion forbade them to sing it. Members of the faith believe singing any national anthem is a form of idolatry and “unfaithfulness” to God.

“Their ideology is wrong. Jehovah’s Witnesses, your ideology is wrong. You do not help anyone or respect anyone. You want everyone to be destroyed except yourself. That is your ideology,” Martin said in the video, which was removed from Facebook a few hours after the explosions.

Regional Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman TA Sreekumar said Martin was not a registered member. The police confirmed Sreekumar’s account of multiple devices detonating inside the convention center.

“The explosions occurred seconds after the end of a prayer as part of the day’s event. The first blast took place in the middle of the hall. Seconds later, two more explosions rocked simultaneously on either side of the hall,” the spokesman said.

The state of Kerala has an especially large Jehovah’s Witness community, but there are about 60,000 members of the religion living across India. Indian officials said a 20-member team has been assigned to investigate the bombing, and security has been tightened in other cities, including Delhi and Mumbai.

Locals said they were shocked by the alleged actions of Dominic Martin, a native of the Kochi area in his late forties or early fifties, according to various accounts. He reportedly has a wife and two children.

“He was not a troublemaker. He did not have many friends but no enemies either. He might have started drinking of late, as per our…conversations with his wife. Also, he never defaulted on rent payment. There was nothing suspicious about his activities,” his landlord of five years told the Indian Express on Monday.

He continued:

I had been following the news of the blasts from the morning, and suddenly, in the afternoon, his wife came down and told me about his video in which he took ownership of the crime. She was apologetic that because of him, there would be so much issues for us and all the people in the locality.

“They have not eaten anything. We have been constantly keeping in touch with them and trying to give them all the support. It’s nothing of their fault that he did this act,” he said of Martin’s wife and children.