4 min readNew DelhiMar 18, 2026 06:23 AM IST
First published on: Mar 18, 2026 at 04:43 AM IST
Illegally entering restricted areas in Mizoram, crossing into Myanmar without permits, training ethnic armed groups and facilitating the supply of drone consignments from Europe to insurgent-linked networks.
These are the key charges against the seven foreign nationals — six Ukrainians and one from the US — who were detained by law enforcement agencies in an extraordinary operation Friday at three airports on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India.
The American national was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at Kolkata airport. Of the six Ukrainian nationals, three were detained at Lucknow airport and three at Delhi airport. All were brought to Delhi and produced before a magistrate Saturday, who remanded them to three days’ custody. On Monday, their custody was extended until March 27, an additional 11 days.
According to documents submitted by the NIA in court, the US national has been identified as Matthew Aaron Van Dyke. The six Ukrainians have been identified as Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim and Kaminskyi Viktor.
The seven men were arrested mainly under Section 18 (punishment for being part of a terrorist conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention)Act (UAPA), along with other relevant sections.
The NIA’s FIR stated that the six arrested Ukrainians were part of a group of 14 nationals from the country who had entered India on tourist visas on separate dates, and had flown to Guwahati. From Guwahati, the Ukrainians had allegedly travelled to Mizoram without the requisite document, that is the Restricted Area Permit (RAP), also known as Protected Area Permit (PAP). It is not immediately clear where the arrested American joined the Ukrainian group.
The group allegedly crossed the border illegally into Myanmar with the intention of carrying out a “pre-scheduled training for Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Groups (EAGs)”, the NIA said in its FIR. These EAGs, according to the NIA, are known to support insurgent organisations operating in India in the domain of “drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology etc., targeting the Myanmar Junta”.
The sources said that the investigation has found evidence suggesting that multiple consignments of drones from Europe were delivered by the accused persons to individuals and groups in Mizoram.
The NIA submitted before the court that the accused persons have disclosed during interrogation that they were in “direct touch and abetted in their terrorist illegal activities by unknown terrorists carrying AK47 Rifles”.
The NIA has also claimed that the questioning of the accused persons has confirmed that they had travelled to Mizoram without requisite documents and entered Myanmar illegally. They had “conducted training for EAGs on more than one (occasion), in addition to illegally importing huge consignments of drones from Europe to Myanmar via India for the use of EAGs”, the NIA said.
These groups were known to be supporting some proscribed Indian insurgent groups “by way of supplying weapons and other terrorist hardware and training them”, the NIA claimed.
The NIA has told the court in its remand papers that it needs the custody of the accused persons “to collect more evidence to unearth the overall conspiracy of the present case hatched by the accused persons and their accomplices”.
It has said that it wants to “unearth the route opted” by the accused persons to illegally enter into Myanmar, and to “apprehend the close unknown associates still at large who are likely to surface after technical analysis of the data/ social media accounts being extracted and examined”.
The NIA has also submitted that the seized mobile phones of the accused persons were being sent to CERT-IN for data extraction and analysis. This, it said, was needed to “find out the true facts” of the conspiracy and to “unearth the mastermind” along with the source of funding.
The NIA was represented before Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma of Patiala House Court, where the case is being argued by Special Public Prosecutor Rahul Tyagi, Public Prosecutor Anil Dabas, and advocates Jatin and Amit Rohilla.
The sources said that the investigation has found evidence suggesting that multiple consignments of drones from Europe were delivered by the accused persons to individuals and groups in Mizoram.
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