Key Points:
The NIA arrested US citizen Matthew VanDyke, and 6 Ukrainian citizens in India for illegally entering restricted areas in Mizoram. Authorities are currently investigating their activities to determine if he was conspiring to commit terrorist attacks or disrupt Indian sovereignty.
VanDyke has a notorious history of participating in foreign conflicts across Libya, Syria, and Iraq. He previously fought alongside rebel forces, advised militant factions, and even founded a private military company to train local fighters.
His arrest coincides with recent statements from a US official warning against letting India become an economic rival. This timing has sparked serious suspicions that VanDyke was intentionally acting on behalf of American geopolitical interests.
On March 13, 2026, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested seven foreign nationals on charges of conspiring to commit terrorist attacks in India. Over the last week, the NIA arrested three Ukrainians each from airports in Lucknow and Delhi, while one US citizen, Matthew Aaron VanDyke, was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at Kolkata airport.
The six Ukrainian accused are Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor. As of now, all seven are booked under Section 18 and other relevant sections of the UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act), and are being investigated by the NIA to answer for their illegal activities inside India.
See Also: 14 Arrested in Varanasi for ‘Iftar Party’ Atop Boat on Ganga, Citing ‘Hurt Religious Sentiments’
Matthew VanDyke first gained international attention during the 2011 Libyan Civil War, where he illegally entered the country, took up arms alongside anti-Gaddafi rebel forces, and spent six months as a prisoner of war in solitary confinement before escaping.
Following the fall of the Libyan regime, he surfaced in Syria during the uprising against Bashar al-Assad. While he initially claimed to be there to film a documentary on the rebel movement, he became an active participant by advising fighters on weaponry and military tactics, leading the Syrian government to officially declare him a terrorist.
While he has acknowledged that he doesn’t work for the CIA, he has admitted that he was close to getting recruited by the American agency. Interestingly, the CIA is often involved in such incidents globally where a country’s sovereignty is targeted.
VanDyke’s activities later shifted to Iraq, heavily motivated by the brutal 2014 execution of his journalist friends by ISIS. In response, VanDyke founded Sons of Liberty International, a non-profit private military contracting firm. Through this organization, he operated on the frontlines to provide free tactical combat training, security consulting, and military supplies to vulnerable local groups, particularly Iraqi Christian militias, to help them defend their territory and fight against ISIS forces.
In his most recent venture, he entered India on a tourist visa and went into Mizoram, but illegally ventured far beyond restricted limits. The NIA claimed that he entered restricted areas in Mizoram without an official mandatory Restricted Area Permit (RAP), an area where even ordinary Indians are not allowed without official permission.
Crucially, the NIA investigation has uncovered that VanDyke and his associates subsequently crossed into Myanmar to train ethnic armed groups in drone warfare, facilitating the supply of drones imported from Europe. His past activities raise concern that he was genuinely involved in conducting activities detrimental to Indian interests, and in favour of the US.
During the Raisina Dialogue (India’s flagship conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics) that took place in New Delhi on March 5 and 6, 2026, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau stated that the US won’t allow India to become a rival like China. Speaking on March 5, 2026, he mentioned that it would be against US national interests to give India the same kind of economic advantages it once gave China, which allowed it to emerge as one of the world’s largest superpowers.
While he mentioned that the US and India should work in coordination to achieve great economic growth and business advantages, signalling a win-win situation, he firmly added: “India should understand that we are not going to make the same mistakes with India that we made with China 20 years ago in terms of saying, we are going to let you develop all these markets, and then, the next thing we know, you are beating us in a lot of commercial things.”
Was VanDyke in India to cause disruptions based on the US approach that they don’t want India to become an economic superpower? It is something that the NIA, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Ministry of External Affairs will figure out. For now however, it is evident that his past activities are certainly linked to creating a larger disorder on foreign territories, acting on America’s behalf and interests.
(Rh)
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