Advertisement

Indian police face off with Sentinel Island tribe who killed missionary John Allen Chau … from a safe distance of 400 metres

  • Indian authorities have been struggling to figure out how to get the remains of Chau, who was killed by the islanders
  • The Sentinelese normally attack anyone who goes to their island

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
A Sentinelese tribesman takes aim with his bow at an Indian Coast Guard helicopter as it flies over North Sentinel Island in 2004. Members of one of the world's last tribes untouched by modern civilisation have killed an American who ventured illegally onto their remote island, Indian police have said. Photo: AFP / Indian Coast Guard / Survival International

Indian officers had a nervous long-distance face-off with the tribe who killed an American missionary, in their latest bid to locate his body on a remote island, police said Sunday.

Advertisement

The police team, who took a boat just off Indian-owned North Sentinel island on Saturday, spotted men from the Sentinelese tribe on the beach where John Allen Chau was last seen, the region’s police chief Dependra Pathak said.

Using binoculars, officers -in a police boat about 400 metres from the shore – saw the men armed with bows and arrows, the weapons reportedly used by the isolated tribe to kill Chau as he shouted Christian phrases at them.

“They stared at us and we were looking at them,” said Pathak. The boat withdrew to avoid any chance of a confrontation.

Police are taking painstaking efforts to avoid any disruption to the Sentinelese – a pre-Neolithic tribe whose island is off-limits to outsiders – as they seek Chau’s body.

Advertisement
Advertisement