NEW DELHI — Members of one of the world’s most primitive and isolated tribes have killed two fishermen who strayed on to their island in India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, a senior government official said yesterday.Coast guards spotted two bodies buried in sand last month on North Sentinel Island, 40km west of the island chain’s capital, Port Blair, said chief administrator D.S. Negi. A group of about 20 Sentinelese tribes people were surrounding them, Negi said. “They (the tribals) were naked and carrying bows and arrows,” he told Reuters by telephone.
The Indian government has banned anyone from going near Sentinel Island where about 250 tribe members live a hunter-gathering lifestyle little changed since the Stone Age.
Negi said he had no knowledge of any previous killing of outsiders by the islanders. He said the fishermen, a young boy and an older man — who lived in Port Blair — had probably drifted towards the island without realising their mistake.
| "Now, now, my nephew, they're just primitives, let me handle them." |