Police register FIRs on murder of fisherman by Jarawas

Port Blair, Nov 26 (UNI) The Andaman and Nicobar Police have registered two FIRs over the recent murder of a fisherman who was stabbed to death by Jarawa tribes last week, police said today.

A group of stone-aged Jarawa tribes, living in remote Indian Islands of Bay of Bengal, reportedly killed a fisherman and injured three others on November 19 when they had gone to venture inside their tribal reserve forest for fishing illegally.

Police said the incident ocurred on November 19 at Mahuwa Tikry area of Middle Andaman region, when a group of nearly 15 Jarawa tribals encircled eight fishermen in three fishing boats, who were poaching in their area.

The victims told the police that the tribal members were demanding rice and other food-stuff from them and when they denied, one of the Jarawas stabbed one fisherman with his arrow and killed him.

The Jarawas also injured three other fishermen with their arrows, seeing which other fishermen jumped into the sea and escaped.

When the four escaped fishermen returned to their boat they found one of the four injured fishermen dead while the three others were screaming with pain.

'' We have registered two FIRs in this regard, one for the murder while the other against the fishermen for illegally entering the tribal reserve forest,'' V Renganathan, the Superintendent of Police in Andaman told 'UNI' today.

According to police since 1998 this was the first incident when any islander had been killed by Jarawa tribes in Middle Andaman Region. '' There were many cases before 1998,'' the police officer added.

The Jarawas, having a population of a little more than 200, are one of the four tribal groups in the Andamans. They are hunters and live on two large islands in the Andaman District.

The three injured fishermen are undergoing treatment in Port Blair's Government hospital.

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