India struggling to retrieve U.S. missionary's body from island
- 6 years ago
NORTH SENTINEL — Indian authorities have said retrieving the body of the killed American missionary from North Sentinel island could be difficult.
According to CNN, police and the fishermen who reported seeing 26-year-old John Allen Chau's body last week, went close to the island on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to find a way to recover the body.
The police and fishermen saw a group of islanders armed with bows, arrows and spears guarding something on the beach, the New York Times reported.
According to Dependra Pathak, a top police official in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, "we have mapped the area with the help of these fishermen. We have not spotted the body yet but we roughly know the area where he is believed to be buried."
Pathak added the Sentinelese were patrolling the beach around the same spot Chau was killed.
Instead of approaching to retrieve the body, police sketched out the crime scene and then sailed away.
North Sentinel Island is home to one of the last remaining untouched hunter-and-gatherer societies left in the world. It's about the size of Manhattan with an estimated population of about a few dozen people.
India has kept the island off limits in order to prevent Sentinelese from catching modern illnesses and to keep trespassers from being killed.
According to Indian law, people are not allowed to travel within five nautical miles of the island and the Indian Navy patrols is day and night.
According to CNN, police and the fishermen who reported seeing 26-year-old John Allen Chau's body last week, went close to the island on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to find a way to recover the body.
The police and fishermen saw a group of islanders armed with bows, arrows and spears guarding something on the beach, the New York Times reported.
According to Dependra Pathak, a top police official in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, "we have mapped the area with the help of these fishermen. We have not spotted the body yet but we roughly know the area where he is believed to be buried."
Pathak added the Sentinelese were patrolling the beach around the same spot Chau was killed.
Instead of approaching to retrieve the body, police sketched out the crime scene and then sailed away.
North Sentinel Island is home to one of the last remaining untouched hunter-and-gatherer societies left in the world. It's about the size of Manhattan with an estimated population of about a few dozen people.
India has kept the island off limits in order to prevent Sentinelese from catching modern illnesses and to keep trespassers from being killed.
According to Indian law, people are not allowed to travel within five nautical miles of the island and the Indian Navy patrols is day and night.