Who is Dominic Martin, the ‘soft-spoken man’ behind the Kalamassery blasts

Neighbours in the area of Thammanam in Kochi city insist that Martin was so decent that he on his own increased the rent of his rented house by ₹1,000 even though he was not economically very well off.

A Class 10 passout, Martin had a talent for languages. He taught spoken English to children in his neighbourhood.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced him to seek employment as an electrical foreman in Dubai. He returned from there two months back. It was this knowledge, unfortunately, which helped him make the deadly bomb that took a heavy toll on Sunday (October 29) in Kalamassery in Ernakulam district.

Touched wife's feet before attack

On Sunday, Martin left his house early in the morning after telling his wife that he would be visiting a friend. Before stepping out, he touched her feet – a surprise gesture whose significance dawned on others much later.

Martin reached the international convention centre in Kalamassery where the followers from the small Christian group Jehovah's Witnesses had gathered for the finale of a three-day prayer meeting.

Some 2,000 Christians were there when Martin placed a bomb he had made along with a bottle filled with petrol, went out and set off a deafening blast with a remote. This triggered multiple explosions, killing three people and injuring some 50, some of them seriously.

Martin then surrendered to the police at Kodakara in Thrissur claiming responsibility for the worst terror attack in Kerala’s history. At least four people remain in hospital with critical injuries. Over a dozen people also suffered burns. Some people were discharged after first aid.

Neighbours, family in shock

When the police swooped on Martin’s house where he had lived for five years, both the family and neighbours were dazed.

"We were all in a state of shock and could not believe it. The police searched the house and talked to the family,” said the landlord, Jaleel BA. “But they did not get any evidence, I guess.”

It was left to Mini, a stunned wife of Martin, to break the news about the devastation her husband had caused to their landlord. She played Jaleel the video that Martin had posted on social media after the killings. The woman then fell unconscious, unable to bear the stress.

Video confession

Martin’s son pursues higher education in the United Kingdom while his daughter studies in Kochi.

Before surrendering, Martin posted a video on social media – which he later took down – in which he says: “You all may have taken note of something that happened today (Sunday). There was a bomb blast at a Jehovah’s Witnesses convention… I take full responsibility for that. I was the one who executed the bomb blast there.”

He said in the video it was six years ago that he realised 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.

Martin claimed that he told the organisation several times to correct its teachings but it was not ready to do so. "As I had no other option, I took this decision," he said.

Martin reportedly told the police that he learnt to make the IED bomb over the past six months through YouTube.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a small community in Kerala with just around 17,000 members.

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 granted protection as forcing them to sing the national anthem amounted to violating their fundamental right to religion.

(With inputs from agencies)