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New Delhi: In what is being described by the opposition as the Modi government’s “Masood Azhar moment” and its succumbing to international pressure, seven foreign nationals arrested in March, against whom the National Investigation Agency (NIA) did not invoke terrorism charges in a chargesheet earlier this month, have been granted bail to visit their families in Europe and the United States for a month.

The six Ukrainians and one US citizen were detained on March 13 and accused of running a training camp for ethnic armed rebels in India and Myanmar. They were charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA).

Congress leader Saral Patel wrote on X after the special NIA court released them on bail, “Masood Azhar moment by Narendra Modi govt.” He called the decision “complete surrender by Narendra [Modi] before foreign powers.”

Masood Azhar and two others, held by the Indian government since 1994 in a case related to faked documents, including a forged passport used to enter India, were released in December 1999 after the hijacking of passenger flight IC-814. They were released by the Vajpayee government in exchange for passengers and crew aboard the plane. Azhar set up the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist outfit in 2000, that subsequently carried out attacks in India.

Azhar was, in 1999, associated with the Harakat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), the Indian government had said around four days before the release. It also said, “The recent hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft is the most brazen terrorist attempt yet by the HUM to secure the release of its General Secretary Masood Azhar.”

In a post on X, Congress MP and chairman of the AICC media and publicity department, Pavan Khera, described Matthew Aaron VanDyke, the US national among the arrested seven, as a “known mercenary who entered Mizoram without the requisite permit,........

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