American Man Killed by Isolated Indian Island Tribe
An American man, identified as John Allen Chau, is believed to have been killed by the Sentinelese people, a tribe entirely cut off from the outside world on India’s remote North Sentinel Island, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Chau was a Christian missionary who “had a strong desire to meet the Sentinelese and preach on the island,” a police source told Reuters.
Fishermen dropped him off near the island Nov. 16, and he used a canoe to finish his trip there, the report said.
Chau’s body was spotted the following day by the fisherman on their return, Reuters said.
The report said a murder case has been registered against the Sentinelese people.
The Sentinelese are known to attack outsiders with bows and arrows. In 2006, the tribe killed two fishermen whose boat drifted to the island.
Chau was ferried to the Andamans, a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal between India and Burma.
“Adventure awaits. So do leeches,” read the final post on his Instagram account, dated Nov. 2.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BprT4NAnP4G/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading
The Daily Mail reported Chau was a 27-year-old native of Vancouver, Washington, who believed he had been called to share the gospel with the Sentinelese.
The anti-persecution group International Christian Concern expressed alarm about the killing and said India has a history of attacks on foreign Christian missionaries.
“We here at International Christian Concern are extremely concerned by the reports of an American missionary being murdered in India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands,” ICC regional manager William Stark said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to both John’s family and friends.
“A full investigation must be launched in this murder and those responsible must be brought to justice.”
Rare Footage Captures Sentinelese Tribe in India’s Andaman Islands, Banned to Outsiders https://t.co/PqjDO9Ktib pic.twitter.com/GsU6lwWBju
— Indian Country Today (@IndianCountry) May 31, 2017
Authorities said this wasn’t Chau’s first visit to the Andaman islands, but it was his first time on North Sentinel Island.
His body has not yet been retrieved from the island, the Daily Mail reported.
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