India weighs how to recover missionary’s body on island
NEW DELHI — Indian authorities struggled Thursday to figure out how to recover the body of an American who was killed after wading ashore on an island cut off from the modern world.
John Allen Chau, 26, was killed last week by North Sentinel islanders who apparently shot him with arrows and then buried his body on the beach, police say
But even officials don’t travel to North Sentinel, where people live as their ancestors did thousands of years ago, and where outsiders are seen with suspicion and attacked.
“It’s a difficult proposition,” said Dependera Pathak, director-general of police on India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, where North Sentinel is located.
Police are consulting anthropologists, tribal welfare experts and scholars to figure out a way to recover the body, he said.
While visits to the island are heavily restricted, Chau paid fishermen last week to take him near North Sentinel, using a kayak to paddle to shore and bringing gifts including a football and fish.
It was “a foolish adventure,” said P.C. Joshi, an anthropology professor at Delhi University who has studied the islands. “He invited that aggression.”
Joshi noted that the visit not only risked Chau’s life, but also the lives of islanders who have little resistance to many diseases. “They are not immune to anything. A simple thing like flu can kill them,” he said.
On his first day, Chau interacted with some tribesmen — who survive by hunting, fishing and collecting wild plants — until they became angry and shot an arrow at him. The selfstyled adventurer and Christian missionary then swam back to the fishermen’s boat waiting at a safe distance.
That night, he wrote about his visit and left his notes with the fishermen. He returned to North Sentinel the next day, Nov. 16.
The fishermen later Chau watched from the boat as tribesmen dragged Chau’s body along the beach and buried his remains.
Pathak said seven people have been arrested for helping Chau, including five fishermen, a friend of Chau’s and a local tourist guide.
In an Instagram post, his family said it was mourning him as a “beloved son, brother, uncle and best friend to us.” The family also called for the release of those who assisted him in his quest to reach the island.
Chau had wanted ever since high school to go to North Sentinel to share Christianity with the indigenous people, said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Covenant Journey, a program that takes college students on tours of Israel to affirm their faith. Chau went through that program in 2015.
“He didn’t go there for just adventure. I have no question it was to bring the gospel of Jesus to them,” Staver said.