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Police in Kerala opened an investigation against India\u2019s deputy minister of information technology on Tuesday for allegedly stirring religious hatred on social media after bomb blasts<\/a> at a Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses convention in the southern state.<\/p>\n Homemade bombs exploded, killing three people and wounding 50 in the attack on Sunday that targeted a three-day event organised by the Christian-based religious movement a few miles northeast of the city of Kochi.<\/p>\n More than 2,000 people were attending the convention in the state, where the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have a strong presence.<\/p>\n Police arrested<\/a> a man after he posted a video claiming responsibility for the attack, accusing the religious group of being anti-national.<\/p>\n Hours after the blasts, Rajeev Chandrashekhar, a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist government, condemned the blast in a post on social media that went on to accuse Kerala\u2019s ruling Communist party of appeasing radical organisations such as the Palestinian group Hamas.<\/p>\n Chandrashekhar used former US state secretary Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2011 quote, \u201cYou can\u2019t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours. You know, eventually those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in the backyard\u201d and used hashtags #HamasTerrorists<\/a> and #KochiTerrorAttacks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, the former head of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, virtually addressed a rally organised by a local Muslim group in Kerala calling for solidarity with Gaza, media reported.<\/p>\n Kerala\u2019s chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Modi\u2019s Hindu nationalist party was trying to destabilise the state, home to millions of Hindus, Muslims and Christians.<\/p>\n Vijayan said Chandrashekhar\u2019s allegations that the Kerala government permitted protests against Israel were false.<\/p>\n Chandrashekhar\u2019s aide told Reuters<\/em> that the criminal case filed by the Kerala police would be addressed by the minister\u2019s lawyer.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police in Kerala opened an investigation against India\u2019s deputy minister of information technology on Tuesday for allegedly stirring religious hatred on social media after bomb blasts at a Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses convention in the southern state. Homemade bombs exploded, killing three people and wounding 50 in the attack on Sunday that targeted a three-day event organised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/31143017d869fe2.jpg?r=143717","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t