Kochi: There was an atmosphere of shock and disbelief on the premises of the Zamra International Convention and Exhibition Centre at Kalamassery where a bomb blast killed a person and injured at least 36 people on Sunday morning.
The blast occurred around 9.30 am at the venue of a three-day convention of Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian denomination. State police chief Shaik Darvesh Saheb said an improvised explosive device was used in the explosion and a special investigation team will be constituted to probe the incident.
The survivors of the blast – all of them members of the Christian sect who base their beliefs only on the text of the Bible, which they see as the word of God – were yet to come to terms with what happened at the event where they had congregated to pray and deliberate on the theme “wait patiently”.
Over 2,000 people were at the convention centre when the explosion happened. The blast happened soon after the attendees of the event started a prayer with their eyes closed.
“When I opened my eyes it was fire and smoke around. Then I held my daughter close to me and ran out. I could hear loud noises from behind,” a woman from Edachira near Kakkanad who came to attend the event with her husband and daughter told this reporter.
“We were at the centre of the hall and we evacuated immediately. It sounded like an explosion and we could not see anything as there was thick smoke all around,” her husband said. Their car along with hundreds of others was on the campus which was sealed by the police. The family did not wish to be identified.
Francis from Kalady, a road accident survivor, said the sound of the blast was more than what his hearing aid could take in. A couple of his acquaintances suffered burns in the blast.
“The sound was indeed big. I heard a series of explosions from three spots at the centre of the hall,” T J Mathew from Muvattupuzha said. “The meet was organised to get ourselves trained to ‘wait patiently’ in a world which lacks patience. Unfortunately, look what happened at such an event,” he said. He was at the event with his son Shaison Mathew.
The convention was held for members of the sect from different parts of Ernakulam district.
The police had arranged 10 private buses for the crowd to go home and requested them to leave the premises. The police have opened a control room for the attendees to contact them. The control room number is 0484 242 3513.
