Kerala blasts: Toll rises to 3 as another succumbs to wounds

Kochi, Oct 30: The death toll in the blasts at a Christian religious gathering near this port city of Kerala has risen to three, while four others are in critical condition, the state Health Department said on Monday.
A 12-year-old girl, identified as Libina from Malayattoor in Ernakulam district, succumbed to her injuries in the early hours of Monday at the Kalamassery Government Medical College Hospital.
Among the four in critical condition, two are the brother and mother of the 12-year-old girl and they have suffered over 50 per cent burns, state Health Minister Veena George said on Monday.
According to a statement issued by the hospital’s medical board, the girl was admitted to the hospital on Sunday morning with severe burns covering 95 per cent of her body.
Despite receiving ventilator support, her condition continued to deteriorate, leading to her death at 12.40 am, it said.
This marks the third casualty from the blasts at the convention centre.
Two women who were part of the gathering had lost their lives on Sunday.
The minister, speaking to reporters here on Monday, also said that around 60 persons sought treatment in connection with the incident and one person was brought dead after the blasts.
Presently, 12 persons are in ICU in different hospitals, including the Kalamassery Government Medical College, George said.
Multiple blasts occurred on Sunday morning at the international convention centre in Kalamassery where the followers from the minority Christian group, Jehovah’s Witnesses, had gathered for the final day of a three-day-long prayer meeting.
A few hours after the incident, a man claiming to be a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses, surrendered before police in Thrissur district of the state, saying that he carried out the multiple blasts.
Nadda accuses Kerala’s Left govt of ‘soft
pedalling’ radicalisation
BJP chief J P Nadda launched a scathing attack on the Left government in Kerala on Monday, accusing it of “soft pedalling” the “radicalisation” in the state.
A day after bomb blasts at a Christian religious gathering near Kochi rocked the state, the BJP chief alleged that it indicates how the law-and-order situation in Kerala has deteriorated under the governments of the Congress and Left parties, and how “terrorism” is thriving.
He also accused the Left government of remaining a “silent spectator” when a leader of the Islamist militant group Hamas addressed a virtual meeting organised in Kerala a few days ago.
Nadda made the allegations while addressing workers of the BJP-led NDA who laid siege to three of the four gates of the Kerala Secretariat in protest against the alleged misrule of the Left government in the state.
Later in a Hindi post on ‘X’, Nadda charged that radical forces are consistently gaining strength in Kerala, yet the approach of the Kerala government towards these radical forces is quite lenient.
“Even the Congress remains silent on this,” he alleged. (PTI)