A Delhi court was informed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) that the seven foreign nationals apprehended in March on charges of plotting terrorist acts against India had participated in a drone strike on a civilian aircraft in neighbouring Myanmar, reported The Indian Express. The accused, including an American and six Ukrainians, are presently being held in Tihar Jail. On 31st August (Monday), Special Judge Prashant Sharma granted the NIA’s request for authorisation to interrogate two of the incarcerated perpetrators.
The agency asserted that it was necessary to question American mercenary Matthew Aaron VanDyke and one of the six Ukrainians, Viktor Kaminskyi, to “unearth the larger conspiracy” in the case. The submission insisted that their examination was also “necessary to obtain more details about other suspects who are the masterminds sitting in Myanmar.”
Judge Sharma pronounced, “It is an admitted position that NIA is investigating the mentioned accused persons; there is no specific law/ judgment to the effect that this court should or can refuse NIA from doing so. Courts ordinarily are not supposed to interfere with investigation.”
VanDyke and Kaminskyi are anticipated to be questioned by the NIA with the assistance of a Ukrainian interpreter. Additionally, the team will travel to Tihar with laptops, cell phones, printers and stationery as a chargesheet is probably going to be registered next week.
On 19th August the agency had contended, “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.” According to a 24th February report by Myanmar News International, a Myanmar National Airlines ATR 72-600 passenger plane, which was preparing to leave for Mandalay, was hit by an FPV suicide drone at Myitkyina airport in Kachin state four days prior.
NIA further conveyed, “In this regard, 14 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.”
“They had earlier travelled similarly through Mizoram and conducted training on two separate occasions in addition to illegally importing huge consignments of drones and their 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,” the NIA application mentioned.
It outlined that “multiple digital devices” that were taken from the accused have been forwarded for data extraction and forensic analysis. The agency added that although certain reports have been made available, the “very huge and voluminous data needs time for thorough analysis for the purpose of investigation.”
It stated, “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.”
For many years, a number of Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) have operated in Myanmar. They work in loose collaboration with local militias and other resistance organisations and have been spearheading an armed campaign against the junta government since the military, known as Tatmadaw, took power in a coup on 1st February 2021.
The civil conflict has effectively divided Myanmar into various ethnic governments and resistance councils that dominate particular regions, with an estimated 1 lakh people killed in the fighting thus far.
On 13th March, VanDyke was arrested at the airport in Kolkata, while the Ukrainians Kaminskyi, Petro Hurba, Taras Slyviak, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Marian Stefankiv and Maksim Honcharuk were nabbed at the airports in Delhi and Lucknow. The men had been in Tihar since 6th April after they were brought before the Special NIA Judge in Patiala House court on 14th March.
According to the NIA’s investigation, the accused supplied multiple shipments of drones from Europe to people and organisations in Mizoram. It was underscored that during questioning, they admitted to having “direct touch and abetting their terrorist illegal activities by unknown terrorists carrying AK47 rifles.”
