Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Nov 21: The Andaman and Nicobar Administration is taking all possible precautions to retrieve the body of American National Mr. John Allen Chau, 27 years, who was killed by Tribes of Sentinelese Community at North Sentinel Island.
However, remoteness and hostility of the tribes in North Sentinel Island is posing serious challenge in retrieving the body.
John Allen Chau, a resident of Alabaman, USA, had gone to North Sentinel Island with five local fisherman on 14 November night to interact with Sentinelese tribes and preach Christianity, where he was killed either on 16 November night or 17 November early morning by the hostile tribes of North Sentinel Islands.
His dead body was spotted by fishermen who carried John to the Island, on 17 November 2018 morning.
Now the Andaman and Nicobar Administration is trying to retrieve the body for which a recce team has been sent today in a Coast Guard vessel, which consists of experts from Tribal Welfare Department, Forest Department, Anthropological Survey of India police etc.
“They have gone on Coast Guard Vessel for a first hand recce so that a strategy can be drawn for retrieval of the body, which is a professional requirement. At this point of time keeping in view the sensitivity and character of the un-contacted group a timeline cannot be given but yes we are working on it. We are professionally handling it keeping in view that they are un-contacted group of individuals and aborigines,” said Mr. Dependra Pathak, IPS, Director General of Andaman and Nicobar Police.
After a series of meeting and confusion finally on Tuesday night a case of murder has been registered against unknown tribal members of Sentinelese Community.
Police sources said that the victim visited Andaman and Nicobar Islands four times in past and had a strong desire to meet Sentinelese Tribes for preaching Christianity.
John Allen Chau reportedly hired fishing dinghy from Chidiyatapu area of South Andaman and with the help of five fishermen he reached close to the Island on 14 November 2018, from where he travelled in his own foldable canoe. He paid Rs. 25,000 to the fishermen for this trip.
“The Moment we came to know about this case, two cases have been registered, one case of Murder against unknown persons on the complaint of one of the fishermen and another case against five fishermen who accompanied him upto the Island and off and on anchored themselves near the Island and two persons one engineer and another an water sports chap who got all these fishermen introduced and actively facilitated him to go to the North Sentinel Island. Against these seven, case under PAT and IPC under sections 282/336/304/34 which is culpable homicide not amounting to murder, has been registered.,” DGP said.
Sentinelese is a hostile tribal community living in North Sentinel Island of South Andaman.
No effort should be made to recover his body by disturbing the tribes under the pressure of US. He paid for his adventurism showing scant respect for the law of the land. Let the handful of sentinels live in peace, no effort to be made to destabilize and disturb their life