The news that six Ukrainians and one American citizen were arrested from Kolkata, Delhi and Lucknow airports by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and booked under anti-terror laws, as they are allegedly linked to terror-related activities and were using the North Eastern states to reach out to insurgent outfits in Myanmar is troubling. That these foreigners entered Mizoram and then Myanmar exposes a vital security lapse as these foreigners can only enter the states of Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur after obtaining Inner Line Permits (ILP).
The allegations against these foreign nationals are that they are involved in a transnational network with links to Northeast India and Myanmar and that they were training and assisting the armed groups operating at the Indo-Myanmar border. What is more troubling is that these 7 persons are part of a groups that provide drone warfare training and equipment to insurgents and that the drones are being smuggled from Europe into Myanmar, using India as the trafficking route. It stands to reason that these foreigners would not have been able to operate without the assistance of the ethnic armed groups that operate along the Indo-Myanmar border. Perhaps the existence of the 1600 kilometres Free Movement Regime (FMR) across the border between Manipur and Myanmar is what makes it easier for easy border crossing. The ethnic communities of Manipur and Nagaland have been opposing the fencing of the FMR on the plea that it would cut off the umbilical cord of the ethnic groups that are resident on both sides of the border as a result of what is defined as a crude and ignorant dissection of borders by the British colonialists. Matthew VanDyke the US national was a former mercenary who has participated in conflicts in war zones like Libya. He is alleged to have been providing training and giving operational support to insurgents in the North East and the Kachin states on the use of drones.
While the Ukrainian government has protested the arrests and is seeking consular access and release of its citizens, the US has not yet commented on the arrest of VanDyke. This arrest should draw the attention of Delhi to the vulnerabilities of the India’s North East which is connected to the country only through a narrow corridor of 27 kilometres which is only 1% of the border that the region shares with the rest of the country. 99% of the North Eastern region share borders with China, Myanmar, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. The Indo-Myanmar and Indo-Bangladesh borders are known to be the outlets for the North Eastern region to trade with the outside world but with both these countries now in a state of flux the possibilities of trade from the India’s north-east with South East Asia has entered a no-go zone. Now if terror outfits in the region are being trained by international mercenaries then there is reason for concern and a better security apparatus has to be in place in the North Eastern states. The India–Myanmar border is also a critical space as it is a safe haven for armed groups after the 2021 military coup in Myanmar. North East insurgent outfits are known to have training camps especially in the Sagaing region. While Meghalaya stands apart from the core insurgency belt it is not completely insulated since its borders with Bangladesh are porous and are often used for arms smuggling and militant outfits like HNLC and ANVC have used Bangladesh as a safe haven and transit route even while the former continues to recruit cadres.
