More than 2,000 people were attending a three-day Jehovah’s Witnesses meeting at a convention centre in the southern state of Kerala on Sunday morning when the blast and subsequent fireball ripped through the crowd.
Police said preliminary investigations showed the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device.
One woman died immediately, and another died hours later of her wounds.
Local assistant police commissioner PV Baby told AFP on Monday that a 12-year-old girl had also died after suffering from burns covering much of her body.
“There are three to four people with serious injuries,” Baby added.
The explosion happened in Kalamassery, near the port city of Kochi.
Hours later, a man handed himself in to the police after releasing a video message on social media and aired on television channels in which he claimed to be a disgruntled former member of the church.
Around two percent of India’s 1.4 billion people are Christians, according to the last census in 2011.
There are nearly 60,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in India, according to the church’s website.
AFP
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