US And Ukraine's Reply After American, 6 Others Arrested Under India's Anti-Terror Law

The US embassy in India has said it is "aware of the situation" after the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the country's top anti-terror body, announced that it had arrested seven people, including an American national, for taking the India route to enter Myanmar illegally to train ethnic armed groups in the neighbouring country and some banned groups in India too.

We are aware of the situation, but for privacy reasons we cannot comment on cases involving US citizens, the American embassy said.

The six other accused are Ukrainian nationals, as confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in a statement to the media today.

The Ukrainian diplomatic mission remains in constant contact with the relatives of the detained Ukrainian citizens and is keeping the situation under special control, it said. At present, the competent authorities of India are conducting the relevant investigative actions, the diplomatic mission of the European country which has been fighting Russia stated.

The American national has been identified as Matthew VanDyke. The Ukrainian nationals are Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan  Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor.

A special NIA court in Delhi has sent them to judicial custody for 11 days.

All of them face charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, UAPA. The court said they should be interrogated, hence the custody.

According to the first information report (FIR) against the seven foreign nationals, they went to restricted areas in Mizoram in the northeast, crossed into Myanmar illegally, and got in touch with ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and some groups banned in India.

The accused allegedly trained the armed groups, gave weapons, and helped in drone operations, the FIR stated. The charges indicate activity consistent with mercenary work.

READ | Who Is Matthew VanDyke, American Arrested In India Over Drone Warfare Training

Larger Conspiracy?

Fourteen Ukrainian nationals entered India on tourist visas on different dates, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified. They took flights to Assam's Guwahati, and then to Mizoram, a state bordering Myanmar, without proper documents before finally crossing into Myanmar.

Their objective was to train the EAOs in Myanmar that have links with banned insurgent groups in India, people familiar with the matter said. A large number of drones were routed from Europe to Myanmar via India, allegedly for use by the armed groups, they said.

What Mizoram Said

In March 2025, Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma had said his government was not opposing the Centre's decision to reimpose Protected Area Permit (PAP) in the state and regulate movement across the India-Myanmar border, amid security concerns. He had said Mizoram was being secretly used as a transit route by foreigners travelling to Myanmar, which had become a concern for the Centre.

During question hour in the state assembly, Lalduhoma said nearly 2,000 foreigners visited Mizoram between June and December 2024, and many of them did not come as tourists and left the state unnoticed. He alleged some foreigners crossed the Indo-Myanmar border and entered Chin Hills in the neighbouring country to give military training there.

"In the present geopolitics, the situation in our neighbouring country is being closely viewed by different countries, including China and the US. As this is the case, the situation of Mizoram being used by foreigners as a transit route has become a grave concern for the Centre, which prompted the reimposition of the Protected Area Permit in the state," the chief minister told the assembly.

He said Protected Area Permit has been reimposed in other states, which could potentially be used as transit routes by foreigners travelling to Myanmar. Although the Mizoram government had initially opposed the decision, it later understood the essentiality of the permit as viewed by the Centre, he said.

The whole of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram, and parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand are defined as protected areas.