BREAKING NEWS | Explosion at Convention in India(click for thr full article)
This news item appeared on jw.org only few days ago.
On Sunday, October 29, 2023, at least two bombs exploded at the regional convention held in Kerala, India. The incident occurred just after the opening prayer.
According to initial reports, two of our sisters were killed(=they more latest update is that 3 have now died,two women who attended the meeting died on Sunday, while a 12-year-old girl with 95% burns succumbed to her injuries on Monday.)
At least 55 individuals were injured. There were over 2,200 people in attendance. The police are currently investigating the situation. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this tragedy.—Psalm 9:9.
Explosion hits Jehovah’s Witnesses prayer meeting in India’s Kerala
The blast takook place as hundreds gather for Sunday prayer in the southern town of Kalamassery in Kerala state.
People stand outside a convention centre where a blast occurred during a religious gathering in Kochi, India, on October 29, 2023 [File: Sivaram V/Reuters]
An explosion at a Christian prayer meeting in the southern Indian state of Kerala has killed one person and wounded at least 36, according to authorities.
The blast took place as hundreds of followers of the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination gathered for prayer on Sunday morning at a convention centre in Kalamassery town in Ernakulam district.
People gathered utside at the Zamra convention centre in Kalamassery, India on Sunday, October 2023 after an explosion that authorities say killed two and injured more than 20.
“At about 9:40am [04:10 GMT], there was an explosion in Zamra International Convention Centre in which one person died and 36 are undergoing treatment,” Kerala’s Director General of Police 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,” he said.
Videos filmed shortly after the explosion and posted online showed flames inside the building and rescuers helping people clear out.
“We are examining all angles and will find out who is behind this,” Saheb added.
Meanwhile, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) law and order, MR Ajith Kumar, said during a news conference that a person named Dominic Martin, who claimed responsibility for the explosion, had surrendered at a police station in Thrissur district about 65km (40 miles) north from the site of the incident.
The suspect is “claiming that he has done it”, saying that “he belonged to the same group of sabha”, Kumar told reporters, adding that police is “verifying” the claims.
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. Martin said in the video he feels the Jehovah’s Witness theology is wrong and that is what led him to carry out the blast.
“They teach that all people of the world would perish and only they will live. What should we do with people who long for the ruin of the entire people in the world. I could not find a solution. I took the decision realizing that this idea is dangerous to the country,” Martin said in the video.Police said they were working to verify Martin’s claims.
Hours after the explosions,Martin posted a video on Facebook claiming to be a former member of the Jehovah's Witnesses who planned the blasts because he was angry with the group's teachings. But Mr Sreekumer, the spokesman for the Watchtower told Reuters that Mr Martin was "not a registered member".
Isn't that interesting? If it is true that he was a disfewllowshiped person the Watchtower doesn't even want to go there because the media will start digging the hundreds of articles that they have written against the apostate community for decades.
India, with a population of 1.4 billion, has only about 60,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses followers, its adherents say. There are about 28 million Christians in India, as per the 2011 census.
A section of local media reported that there were three separate blasts at the prayer gathering, each hitting different areas of the convention hall.
“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,” TA Sreekumar, regional spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, told mathrubhumi.com.
Thia follows another deadly incident in March this year when an armed man killed seven people in Hamburg, Germany at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall.