VanDyke’s ‘holy war’: From Libya and Iraq to NIA custody

HT spoke with VanDyke’s associates such as Pastor Devlin and scholars who have studied SOLI to better understand the organisation and the man behind it.

Washington : Months before his arrest by the National Investigation Agency in Kolkata for allegedly training ethnic militias in Myanmar, Matthew Aaron VanDyke was urging an associate to visit that country. The Kachin and Chin peoples, VanDyke said in a text message, seemed “really serious about Christianity” and fighting the “mostly Buddhist military junta”. Pastor Dr William Devlin, an associate who kept in touch with the self-styled American freedom fighter, told HT he knew VanDyke was in Myanmar and “wasn’t

Indian agencies are now focused on identifying those who may have assisted the American citizen, Mathew Aaron VanDyke, and the Ukrainian nationals (ANI video grab)