THE AFTERSHOCKS

For Kerala and the followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW), an obdurate Christian sect with some 50,000 followers in India, October 29 was a black Sunday.

- Jeemon Jacob

As a 2,500-strong congregation of the sect rose for prayers at the Samra Convention Centre in Kalamassery, a Kochi suburb, a series of four explosions ripped through the hall, the first at 9.38 am, sending the faithful screaming to the exits. Three people died—Leyona Paulose, 55, on the spot; Kumari Pushpan, 53, and Libina Pradeepan, 12, in hospital. Some 52 were injured, at least five critically.

The incident fed right into a volatile environment in Kerala and the country in the wake of Israel’s bombing of Gaza, and soon took on a life much larger than itself. Coming as it did right after pro-Palestine protests in Kozhikode on October 26 and the furore over a Hamas leader virtually addressing another rally in Malappuram, rumours ascribing the blasts to the hand of radical Islamist organisations went viral. But just hours afterwards, before matters spiralled further out of control, Dominic Martin, 57, a former JW member, came out and claimed authorship through a video message posted on Facebook. It was both a fortuitous anti-climax and a curious turn in itself. Why did he resort to violence? He said it was because the sect’s ideology was “anti-national”. He claimed to have been a JW member for 16 years, but grew disillusioned with it six years ago. “They do not celebrate fes­tivals, do not vote, do not join the mili­tary or the teaching profession. They won’t even sing the national anthem,” he stated. His appeals to the sect to mend its ways proved futile, he said. As promised in the video, he surrendered before the police at Kodakara in Thrissur district, two hours from Kochi, the same day.