The Jehovah’s Witnesses community has switched to online mode after suspending all prayer meetings in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as a precautionary measure following Sunday’s blasts that killed three persons and left more than 50 injured in Kerala.

A source at the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Bangalore told The Telegraph on Wednesday that the decision was taken soon after the blasts at the denomination’s convention in Kalamassery in Kerala.

“We have shifted all prayer meetings to Zoom as a precautionary measure until a further decision,” said the source, who didn’t want to be named since he is not authorised to speak to the media.

“Our prayers are held twice a week and will continue to be so, only that it would be held online instead of prayer halls in these three states,” he said.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses had last moved its prayer meetings online for about three years during the Covid pandemic, said the functionary.

A denomination that doesn’t believe in the Holy Trinity, Jehovah’s Witnesses assemble at Kingdom Halls, and not churches, unlike the mainstream denominations from the Catholic and Protestant orders.

The Kingdom Halls in the three southern states are under lockdown until further notice from the governing body of the denomination, he said.

An estranged Jehovah’s Witnesses member, Dominic Martin, had claimed responsibility for the blasts that left the southern state and the entire denomination in shock. Martin has since been arrested under several sections of the Explosive Substances Act and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

An Ernakulam court, where he was produced late on Tuesday evening, remanded him in judicial custody for 30 days till November 29. He has been moved to the district jail in Kakkanad.

Martin refused to accept a lawyer from the Legal Services Authority and told the court that he would be arguing his case.

Kochi city police commissioner A. Akbar told reporters on Wednesday that
an intensive investigation
was on. “The investigation is on to have a watertight case. No one will have any doubts left once the investigation is over.”

The police will seek custody of Martin for an identification parade likely to be held on Thursday.

The witnesses include a shopkeeper from whom Martin purchased crackers used to source gunpowder, a fuel station employee from where he bought petrol, and others.

In claiming responsibility for the blasts at the convention attended by more than 2,000 devotees, Martin had attributed his act as a response to the “anti-national” ways of the denomination.