Elon Musk said Starlink satellite internet is down in India, his first comments since authorities seized two of the company’s devices in recent weeks, one in an armed conflict zone and the other in a smuggling bust of drugs.
Starlink is seeking approval in India to provide satellite broadband services, and the Musk-owned company is trying to resolve any potential security issues as part of the process.
Musk wrote on
He was responding to a post by the Indian Army about a search operation carried out on December 13 in Manipur state in northeast India, where communal conflict has raged since early last year.
The post included photos of seized weapons and a satellite dish and receiver with the Starlink logo.
Two military officials familiar with the search operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the device with the Starlink logo was being used by a militant group.
They said the device was likely smuggled across the porous border into neighboring civil war-torn Myanmar, where the use of Starlink devices by rebel groups has been documented in the media, although the company does not even operate in Myanmar .
Earlier this month, Indian police sent a legal request to Starlink to obtain purchase details of a device found while catching smugglers at sea with methamphetamine worth $4.2 billion, one of the most large Indian seizures of this kind.
Police suspect that the smugglers were using the Internet device to browse.
