A day after it was discovered that an American man, John Allen Chau (27), was killed by members of a protected and reclusive tribe in the Andaman’s known as Sentinelese tribe, possibly with arrows, when he tried to enter the North Sentinel Island, a letter written by him to his family has been discovered.
A copy of John Allen Chau’s was obtained by DailyMail.com in which he said, “You guys might think I’m crazy in all this but I think it’s worth it to declare Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed.” Chau further added, “Rather please live your lives in obedience to whatever he has called you to and I’ll see you again when you pass through the veil. This is not a pointless thing – the eternal lives of this tribe are at hand and I can’t wait to see them around the throne of God worshiping in their own language as Revelations 7:9-10 states. I love you all and I pray none of you to love anything in this world more than Jesus Christ.”
Describing an attack by a Sentinelese boy, he said that he had been shot with an arrow. “..a ‘little kid shot me with an arrow – directly into my Bible which I was holding. ‘If you want me to get actually shot or even killed with an arrow then so be it. I think I could be more useful alive though,” he wrote.
All the seven people who helped Chau were, therefore, booked and arrested in a case for violating the provisions of the PAT Regulation and causing the death of Chau, the release said. A case of murder has also been registered against anonymous persons.
But Chau’s family in a note posted on the deceased’s Instagram account said that they “forgive” those who are reportedly responsible for the mountaineer’s death. The family has also urged the release of seven people arrested for breaching the provisions of the Protection of Aboriginal Tribe (Regulation), 1956 and causing the death of Chau.
While the timeline leading to Chau’s death is still not clear, the fishermen who took him near the island have told the police that he had visited the Andaman and Nicobar Islands five times earlier. He had expressed a desire to meet the Sentinelese Tribe, whose name is derived from that of the island they inhabit, Sentinel, which is at a distance of 102 km from Port Blair.
The Sentinelese people are among the tribes that survived the tsunami of 2004 without any help from the outside world. For the 2011 Census, enumerators could locate only 15 Sentinelese people – 12 men and three women. However, their numbers could be anything between 40 and 400.
(Inputs from Agencies)