Published : 05 Sep 2026, 07:44 AM
Updated : 16 Sep 2026, 11:47 AM
The National Investigation Agency, India’s top counterterrorism agency, says that seven foreign nationals arrested in March for conspiring terrorist activities in India were also involved in a drone attack in Myanmar.
The foreigners — six Ukrainians and an American — are currently in Tihar Jail, reports the Indian Express.
The agency had sought permission from a Delhi court to interrogate two of the men in prison. Special Judge Prashant Sharma approved the application on Aug 31.
“The Central Government has received credible information indicating the involvement of certain Ukrainian and US Nationals in a drone attack on a civilian aircraft in Myanmar,” the NIA said in its plea.
“In this regard14 Ukrainians had entered India on tourist visa on different dates and flew to Guwahati and thereafter, they travelled to Mizoram without requisite documents (Restricted Area Permit (RAP) / Protected Area Permit (PAP) and entered into Myanmar illegally to conduct a pre-scheduled training on the drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology for Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Groups (EAGs) targeting the Myanmar Military Junta.”
Armed ethnic insurgent groups have been active in Myanmar for decades, but after the military seized power in a coup on Feb 1, 2021, they have been engaged in a civil war against the junta in loose alliance with local militias and resistance forces.
More than 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the fighting so far, Indian Express says.
On Feb 24, Burma News International – which positions itself as the voice of the country’s ethnic minorities, reported that a Myanmar National Airlines passenger aircraft preparing for take-off to Mandalay had been struck by a suicide drone at Myitkyina airport in Kachin state four days earlier.
NIA said, “[The detainees] had earlier travelled similarly through Mizoram and conducted training on two separate occasions in addition to illegally imported huge consignments of drones and its relevant parts from Europe to Myanmar via India for use of EAGs.”
“These EAGs are also known to support certain proscribed Indian insurgent groups by supplying weapons, terrorist hardware and training them thus affecting national security and interest of India.”
NIA legal representatives said “multiple digital devices” seized from them had been sent for forensic examination and data extraction.
“During scrutiny of the data extracted from seized devices of the accused persons, incriminating information and facts emerged in the form of images, videos, voice samples, etc., which are required to be confronted and corroborated with arrested accused persons in order to take the investigation to its logical conclusion,” the agency said.
The NIA said it needed to question American Matthew Aaron Van Dyke and Ukrainian Viktor Kaminskyi to “unearth the larger conspiracy” in the case. They also claimed it was necessary to uncover more details about the masterminds in Myanar.
Van Dyke was held at Kolkata airport on Mar 13, while the Ukrainians – Kaminskyi, Petro Hurba, Taras Slyviak, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Marian Stefankiv, and Maksim Honcharuk – were detained at the airports in Lucknow and Delhi.
They have been in jail since Apr 6.
The defence advocates argued the NIA’s application did not mention any fresh or specific ground for interrogating the suspects.
After hearing both sides, the court approved the interrogation.
The NIA says its investigation found that several consignments of drones from Europe were allegedly delivered by the accused persons to individuals and groups in Mizoram. It says the accused have told interrogators that they were in “direct touch and abetted in their terrorist illegal activities by unknown terrorists carrying AK47 rifles”.
On his website, the 46-year-old American Van Dyke claims that he fought in the 2011 Libyan Civil War to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi”.
He has 574,000 followers on X. The pinned post says: “The family of @Matt_VanDyke seeks urgent U.S. diplomatic intervention as he is presently still denied basic detainee rights, and is being kept in solitary confinement at Tihar Jail 8/9 in Delhi, India… Matthew is innocent of all charges against him.”
