(Thiruvananthapuram) Two people were killed and 35 injured on Sunday in southern India, in the explosion of a homemade device during a Christian prayer bringing together more than 2,000 people.
The explosion occurred Sunday morning at the Zamra International Convention Center in Kalamassery, near the port city of Kochi, where a three-day meeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses was being held.
“The preliminary investigation shows that it was the explosion of an improvised explosive device,” local police director general Darvesh Saheb told reporters.
“We will find out who is behind all this and take strict action,” he promised.
A man then went to police after posting a video on social media and television channels in which he claims to be a former member of the Church with which he now says he disagrees.
PHOTO ARUN CHANDRABOSE, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Injured people receive medical treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital in Ernakulam on October 29.
Police said they would “examine his claims and the reasons given for committing this act”, the Times of India.
The police chief initially reported one death and 36 injured. A local police official, PV Baby, then told AFP that one woman had been killed in the explosion and that a second had succumbed to her injuries.
For its part, the PTI (Press Trust of India) news agency reported three “explosions” during Sunday morning prayers in the important Kalamassery conference center.
India has 1.4 billion inhabitants, more than 2% of whom are Christians, according to the latest census.
Best known for their door-to-door preaching and regularly accused of being a sect, Jehovah’s Witnesses are part of the Christian evangelical movement, born in the United States, and preach non-violence and political neutrality.
Call for calm
The explosion comes against a backdrop of tensions within this prosperous state in the south of the country, which has more than 31 million inhabitants, 26% of whom are Muslims, according to the last census in 2011.
Kerala’s Director General of Police appealed to “everyone to remain calm” following Sunday’s blast.
Mr. Saheb also requested “that no provocative messages be posted on social media,” to ensure the maintenance of “peace” in the state.
The explosion came a day after former Hamas leader Khaled Mashal addressed a pro-Palestinian protest by video in Malappuram, in the same state of Kerala, some 115 kilometers north of Kalamassery.
No official link has been made between the two events.
The broadcast of Khaled Mashal’s pre-recorded speech, organized by a youth group affiliated in the state with the Islamist Jamaat-Islami party, was condemned by the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.