By Peter Foster in New Delhi
(Filed: 08/02/2006)
One of the world's last Stone Age tribes has murdered two fishermen whose boat drifted on to a desert island in the Indian Ocean.
The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who comes within range.
They are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world to remain isolated and appear to have survived the 2004 Asian tsunami.
The two men killed, Sunder Raj, 48, and Pandit Tiwari, 52, were fishing illegally for mud crabs off North Sentinel Island, a speck of land in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands archipelago.
Fellow fishermen said they dropped anchor for the night on Jan 25 but fell into a deep sleep, probably helped by large amounts of alcohol.
During the night their anchor, a rock tied to a rope, failed to hold their open-topped boat against the currents and they drifted towards the island.
Sentinelese tribesmen prepare to fire arrows at
the coastguard helicopter after the fishermen's murder
I LOVE that this still exists, it really is insane how much of the world really isn't fully explored even...just puts things into perspective. To them such stuff as politics, celebrities...all that crap we know and think of as universal does not even exist not does it fit with thier world.