New Delhi: A Starlink satellite internet device— manufactured by American billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX—seized by the security forces in strife-torn Manipur belonged to a group called Peoples’ Liberation Army, generally known as PLA, and its political wing, the Revolutionary Peoples’ Front (RPF), ThePrint has learnt.
Sources in the defence and security establishment said that the seized device was being looked into by specialised Indian agencies.
The device was seized in an operation by the Army and the Assam Rifles in coordination with the Manipur Police on 13 December, ThePrint had reported earlier. It was handed over to the Manipur Police.
The router of the Starlink device had RPF/PLA written on it. Sources confirmed that the device was indeed seized from the hideout of the group.
The RPF/PLA is a Meitei insurgent group with about 2,000 personnel in its ranks. It is among the nine Meitei groups that have been banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
It is also among the active separatist insurgent groups in the Northeast that continue to reject the government’s offer of peace talks.
‘Starlink devices being operated from Myanmar’
Talking about seizure of the Starlink, sources said that all the tribal insurgent groups in Manipur—the Meiteis, Nagas and Kukis—have managed to get their hands on the devices which are mainly operated from Myanmar and in border areas.
“While yes it is true that Starlink cannot be used in Delhi, Mumbai or anywhere in the hinterland because India is geotagged by the company itself, it is active in the border areas of Myanmar,” a source said.
“Myanmar-based insurgent groups and smugglers use the device for their operations because it gives them unrestricted data.”
On Wednesday, Musk, an American technocrat and the owner of SpaceX which manufactures Starlink, denied that his devices are being used for terror activities in India.
“Starlink satellite beams are turned off over India,” he said in a post on X.
When asked about how a Starlink device was found deep inside Manipur and not in the border areas, sources explained that it may have smuggled in but its unlikely to have been used from the area it was seized from.
However, they insist that there are inputs that the device is being used in the border areas with Myanmar.
Calls itself a ‘trans-tribal organisation’
ThePrint had earlier reported that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was formed in 1978 to ‘liberate’ Manipur. The RPF, its political wing, came up a year later.
The RPF used to run a government-in-exile in Bangladesh. However, Irengbam Chaoren—president of the RPF at the time of his death in February last year—is understood to have breathed his last in Myanmar.
Till his death, he believed it was “not possible to achieve freedom through peace talks”.
Though PLA is a Meitei outfit, it calls itself a ‘trans-tribal organisation’.
Members of the PLA/RPF have pledged to take up arms for the sovereignty of Manipur and claim to represent all communities, including Meiteis, Nagas, and Kuki-Chins.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
Also Read: In Manipur, Army seizes Starlink device made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX