Indian officials should abandon efforts to retrieve the body of an American missionary reportedly killed by an endangered tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, a rights group says.
Survival International says any attempt is "incredibly dangerous" for both the Sentinelese tribesmen and officials.
John Allen Chau was said to have been killed with arrows when he landed on North Sentinel on 17 November.
Indian authorities struggled to retrieve Chau's body over the weekend, when a police boat faced off with Sentinelese tribesmen but withdrew to avoid confrontation.
"The risk of a deadly epidemic of flu, measles or other outside disease is very real, and increases with every contact," said Survival International's director Stephen Corry.
"Such efforts in similar cases in the past have ended with the Sentinelese attempting to defend their island by force.".
Survival International advocates for tribal peoples' rights and has campaigned for the protection of the indigenous groups living in the Andamans. »
