NCP president Sharad Pawar on Sunday condemned the blasts near Kochi, terming them deplorable and deeply disturbing.
Two women died and 51 persons were injured, some seriously, in multiple blasts at a Christian religious gathering in a convention at Kalamassery in the Ernakulum district on Sunday morning, sending shockwaves across Kerala.
The blasts took place when hundreds of followers of the minority Christian group Jehovah's Witnesses had assembled there on the concluding day of a three-day-long prayer meeting.
"My sincere condolences to the families of the deceased, and prayers for a quick recovery for those injured," Mr Pawar wrote on X.
Hatred and violence is not the solution, he said and added: "I strongly condemn these blasts." A few hours after the incident in Kerala, 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.
The man further claimed that Jehovah's Witnesses and its ideology were dangerous for the country and therefore its presence had to be ended in the state.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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