Cops steer clear of tribe’s island after man’s killing

PORT BLAIR ( India): One month after an isolated tribe killed an American missionary seeking to convert them, Indian police have still not tried to retrieve the body of John Allen Chau from his remote island grave.

But they are still trying to interview two American missionaries suspected of encouraging Chau to go to North Sentinel in the Andaman Islands, in breach of a strict cordon put around its isolated inhabitants.

Chau, 26, was cut down in a hail of arrows, according to fishermen who dropped him off nearby, as he marched towards the Sentinelese tribes people with his “Jesus loves you” message.

Investigators in the Indian Ocean chain of 500 islands will formally ask two American missionaries who had spoken with Chau before his death to give evidence, police said.

“We have initiated the process of serving them a notice to be part of (the) investigation,” said local police chief Dependra Pathak.

The notice, which would have to go between the Indian and US governments, would only require the Americans to answer questions.

The identities of the Americans, a man and a woman, have not been given. They are known to have left India.

Chau was killed in mid-November but news of his death only emerged six days later.