"Starlink device found in Manipur not working, incompatible"
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, December 18 2024: The Starlink dish and router reportedly recovered by security forces in the state are non-functional and incompatible, NDTV reported quoted sources in the central intelligence agencies as saying.

According to the report, a senior officer requesting anonymity told NDTV that "the devices had definitive markings of Star-link, but when we got it examined, we came to know that it is not compatible in this region" .

The army handed over the device to the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Infor mation Technology for forensics analysis, the officer said.

"Initial reports suggest that they were not operative.

The report is, however, being analysed further" .

Starlink, owned by billionaire Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX, is the world's first and largest satellite constellation using a low Earth orbit to deliver broadband internet anywhere in the world where the service is licenced to operate.

Starlink is not available in India, though the American company has applied for regulatory clearance.

Elon Musk in a post on X has said Starlink doesn't operate in India.

The security forces recovered the Starlink dish and router during a combing opera-tion in Imphal East district's Keirao Khunou village.

They also recovered guns including an MA4 assault rifle used by the Myanmar Army, a pistol, ammunition and other weapons.

"We are examining 20 metres of FTP cables which were recovered along with the satellite internet antenna and the router," another officer said.

FTP cable, or foil shielded twisted pair ca ble, is a networking cable designed for reliable data transmission by minimising the impact of external electromagnetic interference.

Elon Musk's Starlink, owned by his aero-space firm SpaceX, has faced regulatory hurdles in India.

In 2021, the Centre ordered Starlink to stop pre-orders and services without proper licensing.

The service has remained inactive in the country since then.

After visuals of the Starlink device surfaced on social media, the American billionaire in a post on X on Tuesday said, "Starlink satellite beams are turned off over India and were never on in the first place".

His response came after the Indian Army posted photos of recovered items including guns, bombs and a rectangular dish and router with the Starlink company name and logo.

"We recover weapons and gadgetry every day.

Not all is sophisticated but three-fourth of the recovered weapons and tech items are sophisticated," another officer who is involved in held operations said.

Some 5,800 weapons were snatched or stolen from police stations across Manipur last year.

Only 1,900 have been re-covered by the forces.

"In all, some 3,000 weapons have been recovered, but among these are also weapons which were in circulation in the region before the violence began in May 2023," the officer said.

Manipur has been grappling with ethnic violence since May 2023 between the valley-dominant Meitei community and over a dozen distinct tribes collectively known as Kuki, who are dominant in some hill areas of Manipur.

Over 250 people have died, and thou sands have been internally displaced, as clashes over land, identity, and political representation escalate.

The last 19 months in Manipur have seen frequent internet shutdowns and communication restrictions, adding to the com plexity of the crisis.

The discovery of the Starlink device in violence-hit Manipur has heightened concerns about external influences and technological misuse exacer-bating the conflict.

It has definitely raised alarm among intelligence agencies and the security forces as it may be able to provide satellite-based highspeed internet, circumventing the Indian network.

Starlink has no licence to operate in neighbouring Myanmar, too.

However, the Myanmar Internet Project - a collective run since 2022 by researchers to track developments in the Myanmar digital space - has estimated some 3,000 Starlink connections across the country, used by both ethnic insurgents lighting the junta and the common people living in remote areas.

Public commentators and security analysts speculate that the device had likely been smuggled through the porous border with Myanmar, which has been engulfed in civil war.

Media reports have previously documented the use of Starlink devices by rebel groups in Myanmar, though the company does not operate there either .

Comment