Ironically, Tamil Nadu, where two of the blasts had occurred, had remained peaceful immediately after the December 6, 1992 outrage, when much of the country had been engulfed in communal flames. Today, however, communal violence, which had been seeping down India's map in recent years, appears to have found a vicious grip on the once peaceful south. A total of nine passengers had been killed and 70 injured. In Kerala, the bomb symbolised a rude awakening to the spectre of terrorist violence. The state which has a multi-religious populace—of Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Jews—had enjoyed a degree of calm that could now well be a thing of the past.