On Sunday, October 29, multiple bomb blasts at a prayer meet of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kerala killed three people, sending shock waves through the state. The attack was allegedly planned and executed by a single person — a former Jehovah’s Witness called Dominic Martin. Almost eight months before the Kerala blasts, another lone wolf attack on a congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses had taken six lives in Germany.
On March 9, 2023, Philip Fusz, a 35-year-old man, opened fire at a gathering in the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hamburg, Germany. Firing through one of the hall’s windows, he killed six persons including a pregnant woman, and injured eight others. Not only did Philip execute the killings on his own, he also waited at the crime scene till the police arrived. He then died by suicide when the officers asked him to surrender.
The shooting in March is considered the “worst crime in Hamburg’s recent history” by German authorities. Until now, the police have not been successful in arriving at the motive behind the attack. According to them, Philip had no criminal record and was not involved in any network.
All they know is that Phillip, who was previously a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, harboured “ill feelings” towards the community. He had left the community on bad terms a year and a half before the shooting.
Prior to the shooting, Philip had published a book, in which he espoused a Christian right wing ideology and claimed that he had got revelations from angels, god, Jesus, and Satan. involved in any network.
Roughly eight months after the Hamburg shooting, on October 29, another Jehovah’s Witnesses convention held in Kerala’s Kalamassery saw a similar, allegedly lone wolf attack that took the lives of three people and injured over 50 others.
The accused in the case, Dominic Martin, an ex Jahovah’s Witness, had surrendered himself to the police within hours after the blasts and claimed responsibility for its planning and execution. According to him, he had made the bombs himself, at a building he owns in Athani, Aluva. He stated that he blasted them using a remote control. Dominic had meticulously recorded crucial evidence incriminating himself and handed them over to the police.
Shortly before he surrendered, Dominic posted a video on his Facebook page claiming responsibility for the blast. “Six years ago, I realised that the organisation was on the wrong track. They teach anti-national ideas. I have tried multiple times to rectify this, but none of them were ready to change. Living in this country, they teach that the country’s people are deplorable and that members should not mingle with them,” he said.
The investigators have been unable to find any other motive behind the blast until now. Dominic, who was working as a foreman in the UAE, reached Ernakulam only a month ago. Like the Hamburg shooter Philip, Dominic too has no criminal record nor is he associated with any criminal groups.
The investigation officers say that Dominic has been very cooperative with the inquiry and that he described the whole process in great detail. When the police took him to his building in Athani for evidence collection, he explained to them how he made the bombs.
Just like Philip, Dominic’s target was just one community — the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Even though there have been several conspiracy theories doing the rounds in both cases, investigators in both cases say that Philip and Dominic committed the crimes single handedly.