India arrested seven men late last week on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India. Among those seven was a US “freedom fighter”, Matthew Aaron VanDyke, who has been accused of leading a group of Ukrainians to carry out the terror plot.
According to the Indian Express (IE), VanDyke was detained at Kolkata airport on Friday, three Ukrainians were detained at Lucknow airport, and three other Ukrainians were detained at Delhi airport the same day.
The men are currently in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
Who is Matthew Aaron VanDyke?
On his website, VanDyke said that he completed his political science degree from the University of Maryland with a 4.0 GPA. After his Master’s Degree in Security Studies from the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, he said, he chose the “adventurous life”.
VanDyke's website describes him as a “freedom fighter and prisoner of war in the Libyan civil war”, an “award-winning filmmaker” and a “war correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan”.
He also described himself as the founder of “Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), the first military contracting firm run on non-profit principles”, and “international security analyst”.
VanDyke, on his website, said he worked as a war correspondent for The Baltimore Examiner newspaper briefly in 2009. He claims to have also directed a documentary film about Syria.
According to the website, VanDyke spent his 20s motorcycling across North Africa and the Middle East, and joined “a group of rebels who were preparing to fight against Gaddafi”.
When he was about 30 years old, his website says he was arrested by the then regime of Gaddafi in Libya, and was in prison for nearly six months, only being freed after rebel forces released prisoners who broke off the lock to his cell.
He has about 5.84 lakh followers on X, where he has claimed that he fought in Libya and Ukraine. He has also claimed to be running covert operations in Venezuela.
The profile picture on his X account is the same as the man in the NIA’s custody, The Indian Express (IE) confirmed from several officials.
What is SOLI?
According to SOLI's official website, this military contracting firm provides “free security consulting and training services to vulnerable populations to enable them to defend themselves against terrorist and insurgent groups”.
The website says that it first gained international attention for training the Nineveh Plain Forces (a Christian militia in Iraq) to defend their villages against ISIS.
SOLI, according to its website, provides “training, support and resources necessary for oppressed populations to liberate themselves” and helps in taking action “where the international community and governments have failed to assist at-risk populations facing security crises”.
Its self-proclaimed goal is to “combat the rise of extremist militancy by assisting liberation movements before the cycle of violence spawns extremist ideologies”.
SOLI recruits US military veterans for consulting and training local security forces, says the website, adding that it also recruits “experts from various fields for speciality consulting depending on the client’s needs”.
Why was Matthew Aaron VanDyke arrested?
Matthew Aaron VanDyke and the six Ukrainians have been accused of having illegally entered restricted areas in Mizoram and crossed into Myanmar without permits.
They have also been accused of having trained ethnic armed groups and facilitated the supply of drone consignments from Europe to insurgent-linked networks.
In its FIR, the NIA said the group crossed into Myanmar with the intention of carrying out a “pre-scheduled training for Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Groups (EAGs)”
All seven men have been arrested under Section 18 (punishment for being part of a terrorist conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with other relevant sections.
Who are the EAGs?
Who are the six Ukrainians arrested with VanDyke?
Ukraine has lodged an official protest with the MEA and has demanded their “immediate release” of its citizens and “unimpeded consular access,” IE reported.
