No failure in coastal security: Navy chief on US tourist killed in Andaman

US national John Chau was killed on November 17 on North Sentinel island in the Andamans.

Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba has said that there was no failure in coastal security construct in the killing of American tourist John Allen Chau by the Sentinel tribe in Andaman islands.

An American self-styled adventurer and Christian missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed and buried by a tribe of hunter-gatherers on a remote island in the Indian Ocean where he had gone to proselytize, according to law enforcement officials. (REUTERS)

“I don’t see this as failure of coastal security construct,” Lanba said on being asked about the killing.

“He came as tourist in Andaman and Nicobar islands and had requisite permissions to be there,” the Navy chief said, adding that the case is being investigated by the Andaman and Nicobar Command police.

Chau was killed by arrows shot by a protected tribe on North Sentinel island in the Andaman islands. His body is yet to be retrieved.

The Sentinelese guard their territory fiercely and are the most isolated among the native tribal groups that inhabit the Andaman islands and are protected by Indian laws which ban any contact with the indigenous people.