Multiple fires raging, chairs overturned and survivors crying out in pain and horror while scrambling to find their loved ones. Footage of the immediate aftermath of the blasts that rocked the Zamra convention centre in Kalamassery showed the terror that was unleashed upon a crowd of 2000-odd people, who were attending a Jehovah’s Witnesses prayer meeting. The man, who has claimed responsibility for one of Kerala’s worst terror attacks, is Dominic Martin, a spoken English teacher from Thammanam in Ernakulam district. Once a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Dominic claimed he carried out the attack after failing to bring the religious sect on the right path. According to him, they were "anti-national".
On the night of October 28, Dominic Martin told his wife Mini that he would be leaving early the next day to meet a friend. Dominic left the house around 5:30 am on Sunday, October 29, without speaking much to his wife. Little did Mini realise that within a few hours, her husband would make headlines across the country. Dominic would claim responsibility for the explosions that resulted in the death of three persons and left over 50 injured.
Who is Dominic Martin?
Residents of Thammanam, where Dominic and his family have been living for the past five-and-a-half years describe Dominic as a soft-spoken man, who went about his own business without bothering anyone. This is precisely why many of them say that they were shocked when news channels flashed visuals of Dominic confessing that he had planted the bomb at the convention centre in Kalamassery.
Jaleel BA, the owner of the house where Dominic lived with his family, told TNM that it has only been two months since Dominic returned from Dubai, where he has been working for the past two years. “Dominic was teaching a spoken English course here in Ernakulam. But during the pandemic, he lost his job and he had to leave for Dubai, where he is said to have done many odd jobs,” Jaleel tells TNM.
Dominic, who surrendered at the Kodakara police station in Thrissur claiming responsibility for the attack, has a daughter and a son. His son is reported to be pursuing his studies in the United Kingdom while his daughter is working at a company in Kochi’s Infopark. Dominic, his wife and their daughter lived on the second floor of a rented house in Thammanam. According to Jaleel, Dominic returned to Kerala two months ago after his daughter fell sick with dengue. He has been in town ever since.
It was Dominic's wife Mini who informed Jaleel and his family that Dominic had claimed responsibility for the blasts through a video he posted on social media. On Sunday afternoon, Mini showed the video to Jaleel and fell unconscious under the stress of the events.
Dominic’s confession has shocked the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kerala. The first reaction from the religious sect was that they did not have a member named Dominic. But by October 30 morning, many had informed the leaders in the group that Dominic had appeared at prayer meetings a few years ago. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a small community in Kerala with just around 17,000 members divided across 200 congregations. “We are still not sure which congregation he belonged to. We have asked our members. He did come to meetings but no one remembers him picking up a fight or having a disagreement,” Sreekumar, the PRO of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, told TNM.
The religious sect is also reeling under the accusations levelled by Dominic against them. Before surrendering, Dominic had posted a video on social media that has now been taken down. In the video he says, “You all may have taken note of something that happened today. There was a bomb blast at a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention. I don’t know what exactly happened, but I know that it happened for sure and I take full responsibility for that. I was the one who executed the bomb blast there.”
In the video, Dominic also went on to justify the motive behind the act. He said that six years ago, he came to realise that “the organisation was on the wrong track”.
“They teach anti-national ideas and 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 Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the Holy Trinity – Father, Son and the Holy Spirit – but believe in Jesus as the son of God and Jehovah as God. They have a strict code, which includes not having political affiliations, as well as not accepting national symbols such as the flag or national anthem. “Jehovah’s Witnesses choose not to participate in such ceremonies because we believe that these conflict with Bible teachings. We appreciate receiving the same respect for our beliefs as we show to others who make a different choice,” a statement on their website says.
A family, who is part of the sect, had approached the Supreme Court in 1986 after their children were suspended from school for not standing up for the National Anthem. The Supreme Court in the Bijoe Emmanuel case said that the children should be granted protection as forcing them to sing the national anthem will violate their fundamental right to religion.
In his statement to the police, Dominic is also reported to have said that he learnt to make the IED bomb over the past six months through YouTube tutorials. According to the police, Dominic had once worked as a foreman and this gave him working knowledge on how to operate such devices.
The police said that Dominic had placed the bomb along with a bottle filled with petrol, at the convention centre. It has also been reported that the blast was triggered from a distance using a remote. Visuals of the remote have been recovered from Dominic’s mobile phone.