The Union home ministry has asked the Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur governments to keep a close eye on foreigners visiting the states following the arrest of six Ukrainian nationals and a US citizen who are accused of plotting terror activities in India using drones from Europe.
“Based on intelligence inputs, the ministry has asked the three states that share borders with Myanmar to monitor the movements of all foreigners visiting there. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office has also been directed to monitor their movements and take appropriate legal action as and when required,” said a security official with the ministry.
Foreigners visiting these states are required to apply for and obtain a Restricted Area Permit from the government. The permit includes details such as the place of entry, residence and period of stay.
Sources said central intelligence agencies had earlier sounded an alert about suspicious activities by foreign nationals visiting the Northeast. “The ministry is also planning to restrict the movements of foreigners in the three states,” a ministry official said.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the case, said the seven accused had arrived in India last month on tourist visas and travelled to Mizoram without the mandatory Restricted Area Permit. Later, they crossed illegally into Myanmar and met ethnic armed groups and delivered multiple consignments of drones from Europe.
All of them are linked to insurgent and terrorist organisations operating inside India, have been charged under the anti-terror law and are being interrogated by the NIA. The agency on Wednesday carried out raids in Mizoram and Nagaland to trace other members of the gang.
The accused were allegedly involved in illegally transporting large consignments of drones from Europe to Myanmar through India for use by ethnic armed groups. These groups were also allegedly aiding banned Indian insurgent outfits by supplying weapons and other terror equipment and training.
An NIA official said investigators were carrying out forensic analyses of the seized mobile phones and digital evidence, and that the accused would be taken to multiple locations in the Northeast to map entry and exit routes, identify their associates, and trace funding sources.
The accused have been identified as US national Matthew Aaron Van Dyke, and Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim and Kaminskyi Viktor from Ukraine.
Three of the six Ukrainians were arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, while the others were held at Lucknow airport on the night of March 13. The US national was picked up on the same night from Calcutta airport.
A US embassy spokesperson on Tuesday said they were “aware of the situation”, but could not comment on cases involving US citizens for privacy reasons. Ukraine has lodged an official protest with the external affairs ministry, demanding the immediate release of its citizens and access to them.