By Sunrita Sen
NEW DELHI — Indian police and anthropology experts are having trouble retrieving the body of a U.S. missionary who was apparently killed by members of an isolated tribe last week, an official said Saturday.
John Allen Chau, 27, was killed Nov. 17 on the remote island of North Sentinel, part of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, police said.
The island is inhabited by the ancient Sentinelese tribe, which has little contact with outsiders.
Visiting the island is restricted by the government because members of the tribe are vulnerable to infection and are known to attack visitors.
Diaries written by Chau indicated that he wanted to convert the tribe to Christianity, a police source said. A message posted by his family on Instagram described him as a missionary who was “reaching out” to the tribe.
Operators of the boat that took Chau near the island — from where he continued his journey in a kayak — say they saw tribesmen shooting arrows at him and later burying his body in the sand, police said.
Police have arrested seven people who helped Chau reach the island, including the fishermen who operated the boat.
Two of those men accompanied a team of police, forest department, tribal welfare department and coast guard officials who conducted a second expedition to North Sentinel Island Friday to investigate the killing, police spokesman Jatin Narwal said.
“Since the Sentinelese are protected by law to preserve their way of life, due precautions were taken by the team to ensure that these particularly vulnerable tribal groups are not disturbed and distressed during this exercise,” a statement from the police said.
Investigators had also carried out an aerial survey Tuesday and a boat trip to waters near the island Wednesday.
Senior police officials were in discussions with experts from the Anthropological Survey of India to understand the ways of the ancient Sentinelese tribe and figure out a way to retrieve the Chau’s body, Narwal said.
The Sentinelese are protected under Indian law and it is not clear whether they can be prosecuted. In 2006, when the tribespeople were suspected of killing two fishermen who had drifted on to their shore while asleep, there was no prosecution.
A coast guard team in a helicopter that went to retrieve the fishermen’s bodies could return with only one because they were attacked by tribal people with arrows, NDTV news channel reported.
Chau’s family in a post on his Instagram account said they forgave those responsible for his death and wanted the release of his friends in the Andaman Islands.
“He ventured out on his own free will and his local contacts need not be persecuted for his own actions,” the statement said.
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