ThePrint newsbreak reveals plausible Pakistani link to Pahalgam massacre | SoumyaPillai joins

Summary

In a gripping revelation, ThePrint exposes a potential link between Pakistan and the Pahalgam massacre. Soumya Pillai, a science correspondent, uncovered a series of suspicious satellite imagery orders from Maxar Technologies, identifying a spike in images ordered during February 2023 of the Pahalgam region. These orders were unusually high compared to the previous months, drawing connections to a Pakistani-origin company, BSI Private Limited, linked to individuals previously convicted for transferring sensitive technologies to Pakistan. While a direct smoking gun is missing, the suspicious coincidence and context of these activities suggest a plausible connection worth investigating further.

Highlights

• Soumya Pillai's investigative work unveils a possible link to the Pahalgam massacre through detailed analysis of satellite imagery orders. 🛰️
• BSI Private Limited, the firm ordering images, has connections to previously indicted individuals for transferring nuclear technology to Pakistan. 🛑
• This investigative discovery raises concerns about the intent behind acquiring such high-resolution images right before the massacre. 🕵️
• Maxar Technologies distanced itself by removing the questionable company's partnership, igniting further suspicion. 🚀
• The alignment of these events with the timing of the Pahalgam massacre highlights the need for deeper examination. 👀

Key Takeaways

• A potential Pakistani connection to the Pahalgam massacre uncovered through satellite imagery orders ❗
• Maxar Technologies' high-resolution images were ordered in unusual quantities by a company with Pakistani ties 📸
• The company involved, BSI Private Limited, was founded by a man with a nuclear espionage conviction 🕵️
• A sharp increase in orders just before the Pahalgam massacre raises red flags 🚩
• Removing the company's name from partner pages on Maxar hints at possible concealment strategies 🔍

Overview

In a remarkable piece of investigative journalism, ThePrint has uncovered a potentially significant link between Pakistan and the infamous Pahalgam massacre. Using her scientific expertise, Soumya Pillai examined the suspicious activity related to satellite image orders from Maxar Technologies, a leading provider of high-resolution satellite imagery.

The intrigue unfolds with the company BSI Private Limited, linked to a Pakistani individual previously convicted of nuclear espionage, showing a sudden interest in purchasing high-definition images of the Pahalgam region during a critical timeframe. This unusual interest peaked in February 2023, right before the tragic events unfolded, suggesting a possible motive to aid in planning.

The unfolding story took an interesting turn when Maxar Technologies, upon publication of the findings, removed BSI from its list of partners, hinting at possible guilt or awareness of shady practices. While direct evidence of wrongdoing is yet to emerge, the alignment of these pieces calls for a thorough investigation into the matter.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction The chapter titled 'Introduction' begins with a musical cue and transitions into the introduction of Somia Ple, a science correspondent and senior assistant editor from the science bureau. It sets the context for her involvement in discussions on seemingly unrelated areas such as 'kata clutter' and ongoing conflicts, including dangerous daily skirmishes between India and Pakistan involving missiles, drones, and air power.
• 00:30 - 10:00: Somia Pillai's Investigation The chapter titled 'Somia Pillai's Investigation' revolves around Somia, a science journalist driven by her curiosity. Amidst her exploration, she uncovers a significant story that becomes a focal point of the season. The narrative addresses the contentious topic involving 'Pelgam', with skeptics questioning India's lack of evidence concerning a purported Pakistan connection. Accusations of it being a false flag operation have been circulated, even by reputable Pakistanis, yet remain unsubstantiated.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Maxar Technologies and Satellite Imagery The chapter discusses Maxar Technologies and the use of satellite imagery to potentially identify a Pakistani connection to a certain subject. It highlights the importance of evidence in making claims and notes that a plausible connection was found through the curiosity and efforts of an individual named Somia. The narrative cautions against conjecture and emphasizes the need for careful analysis. The chapter underscores the role of satellite data in geopolitical and investigative contexts.
• 15:00 - 20:00: Role of BSI Private Limited This chapter discusses the role of BSI Private Limited, focusing on a viral story that has been widely copied. It begins with the recognition of the headline's significance, anticipating subsequent follow-up stories. The narrative originates from a discovery made by Somia, driven by a minor curiosity.
• 20:00 - 30:00: Due Diligence and Analysis The chapter discusses the due diligence and analysis of Maxar Technologies, a major American company specializing in high-resolution satellite imagery. The chapter highlights the company's ability to provide nearly military-grade satellite images for commercial use, which are costly depending on the image resolution. It also mentions the strategic importance of Maxar's satellite images in international relations, noting their significant role in aiding Ukrainians during the war. Additionally, it references former President Trump's actions regarding Ukraine as part of the broader geopolitical context.
• 30:00 - 35:00: Conclusion The Conclusion chapter discusses the controversial decision to restrict Maxar from selling satellite images to Ukraine, which was met with strong opposition from Zalinski. It highlights the noticeable increase in orders for high-resolution satellite images of the Pelgam region, which initially seemed trivial until the occurrence of the Pelgam massacre. After the massacre, the previously minor details gained significance, providing a crucial perspective on the events that unfolded.

ThePrint newsbreak reveals plausible Pakistani link to Pahalgam massacre | SoumyaPillai joins Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] Let me start out by introducing my colleague to you Somia Ple. Somia is from a science bureau. She's a science correspondent, senior assistant editor in the science bureau. So what is she doing on kata clutter in the in the week of of of Synindur and also daily fighting between India and Pakistan daily very dangerous fighting between India and Pakistan with with the use of missiles drones air power all kinds of
• 00:30 - 01:00 things that's because Somia because of her curiosity as a science journalist found what has turned out to be the most defining story of this entire season because what's been the issue with pelgam the question that skeptics have raised is India has given no evidence that there is a Pakistan connection there were a bunch of people they could be local Pakistanis many Pakistanis including people I respect they have said it's a false flag operation without any without any
• 01:00 - 01:30 evidence but the reason they were able to say this is that there was no evidence of any Pakistani connection so what Somia did is because of her curiosity. She found something which turned out to be a plausible Pakistani connection. I'm saying plausible. I'm being very careful. I'm not conjecturing. I'm making a plaus plausible Pakistani connection. If you read the print, which I'm sure you do, but if you don't, you must read the print. You you would have seen the
• 01:30 - 02:00 story. The story is viral. It's also been copied by many others, which is okay. You can't help these things these days. See the story on your screen. If you see the headline, you understand this, you will also see get a link of the story and there will also be a follow-up today. The follow-up link also will be we will give to you. So what does the story say and how did it start? It started because Somia discovered at some point just minor curiosity that she
• 02:00 - 02:30 was looking at the sales records of Maxar. Maxar technologies. Maxar Technologies as you know is a big American firm which has satellites and provides and sells commercially very high resolution satellite imagery and higher the resolution the more money they charge you. It's almost military grade. In fact Ukrainians in the war have been greatly relying on Maxar pictures. One of the first things Trump had done when he was squeezing Zelinski
• 02:30 - 03:00 was to even put a ban on Maxar selling these pictures to Ukraine and Zalinski completely flipped. Now she noticed that a lot of people had been placing orders for pictures for satellite pictures of the Pelgam region in high high resolution. Now it it was just a minor point of curiosity until the massacre in Pelgam happened. Once the massacre in Pelgam happened then working backwards
• 03:00 - 03:30 she figured that there was some interesting connections to be made. For example month of February. February happens to be a short month 28 days this year. In that short month 30 orders initially it looked like 12 but turned out 30 orders for pictures of the Pelgam region were placed. Somebody had paid that kind of money and Swamia minimum is about three lakhs. Three lakhs is where they three lakh rupees per per picture. Three lakh rupees per picture and higher
• 03:30 - 04:00 the resolution it becomes more right. So somebody had spent that kind of money. The interesting thing is that in the pre in this 12 months preceding this February the average of purchase or orders for Pelgam pictures were just just about 1.5 per month. So how does it go from 1.5 per month to 12 per month? Then in March there is no purchase. In March there is no purchase. There's no order. In April after the incident after
• 04:00 - 04:30 the massacre in Pelgam on April 24 and April 29 there are again fresh fresh orders made for Pelgam pictures with Maxar. Now before if you go back 12 months then there is almost no orders for Max for Pelgam pictures. So how did somebody get so interested in Pelgam pictures and how did that interest peak in February and if even if so how come
• 04:30 - 05:00 there were no orders in March but repeat orders were placed after the event when obviously these people were trying to escape. They were in the same general region. So all of these things added up to a picture and the picture probably was that somebody was interested in Pelgam. Even then a stronger connection needed to be made because this could all just be a coincidence. It could be a tour group or a tour operator who's doing it. So she discovered that these
• 05:00 - 05:30 orders went up with Maxar for Pelgam pictures when a company called BSI Private Limited tiny company BSI Private Limited founded by a man of Pakistani origin Odullah say he had founded this firm he became a member at Maxar only members can place orders with Maxar I'm sure there's a fee he became a member and then demand or pelgam pictures started going up. You might again say ah
• 05:30 - 06:00 this is your you you are drawing too easy a connection just because he's of Pakistani extraction and and people are buying these pictures. This can be mere fantasy or you're being too or you're being overly suspicious for no reason. We would have also I would have also as editor said that look this is we are drawing too tenuous a connection. Let's let's not do this fancy kind of journalism, right? Add two and two and make eight, right? We need more evidence. And that evidence she found
• 06:00 - 06:30 when she discovered she did did some forensic research on Obedullah say and found that in the past he had been charged, tried, indicted in American language, convicted, given a one-year jail sentence. actually a one year one day jail sentence and find a4 billion dollars for what? For for selling nuclear secrets and nuclear equipment
• 06:30 - 07:00 sensitive equipment in violation of American technology transfer rules to Pakistan atomic energy commission. Now you see the threat thread somehow becomes a little bit complete once we got that thread. That's when Somia ran with her story. Now she has a follow-up to that story and I will tell you how significant that follow-up is. Once this story came out and the story went viral,
• 07:00 - 07:30 international media took notice of the story. It looked like Maxar may have sent Pahelgam pictures to somebody, I'm not saying he was, somebody who could conceivably be selling them to the really bad guys in Pakistan to plan the operation in Pelgam. I'm telling you it's a plausible story. This is not a smoking gun. It's a plausible story. But it is a plausible story. plausible plausible and logical story that needs exploration. The company
• 07:30 - 08:00 itself right a guilty conscience. The company itself first of all said that but BSI did not buy any of these pictures from us someone else might have bought. But then lo and behold when she checked the company's website again Maxar's website again BSI's name had been removed as a as a partner. That is the reason I said chihinka or a guilty conscience. So that is the story. Now Somia will explain to you exactly how
• 08:00 - 08:30 this happened and I will leave it to her. Uh like you said Shaker, our first interest uh started growing in Maxer when this particular company Pakistani based company as you very rightly pointed out uh came in as a partner. So I also wanted to make that distinction for our uh viewers that at at Maxer you have paying clients and you have partners and the special privilege that a partner gets is that you know uh they are representatives of the company. So
• 08:30 - 09:00 that makes their association with Maxer even more questionable so to say. So they came in as a partner u around 2023. Uh and uh incidentally that was just after Obedullah say who is the owner of this company had completed his one-year sentence. One year and one day one year and one day uh so he completed his sentence just about a few months later uh the company became a partner and uh what happened is that from June 2024
• 09:00 - 09:30 there was an uptick in pelgam related. So we could not directly make that connection uh before this particular uh unfortunate attack happened but uh there were uh people that we uh our sources in the uh you know security agencies and with ISRO who are also uh customers for Maxer they started noticing that you know India's own territories and sensitive territories like Kashmir in Kashmir Jammu Kashmir around Arunachal
• 09:30 - 10:00 that had started appearing on the Maxer portal So that's how the radar Yes. So that's how the radar went up because India for India Maxer is one of the biggest suppliers of high resolution images. I can flip that point and say that for Maxar, India is a big customer, government of India also and government of India agencies because just as just as for India, Maxar is a big supplier of pictures for satellite imagery for Maxar India is a huge customer and so many
• 10:00 - 10:30 Indian agencies include including ISRO from ISRO I'm sure to security agencies, intelligence agencies, defense, DRDO etc. So they are big clients of ISRO. In fact uh big clients of Maxer in fact uh I mean we would go on to say that we would go on to see that at least 11 of Indian companies are also partners just like BSI later became. So uh the the actually the radar went off when BSI came on board and uh
• 10:30 - 11:00 we started just uh you know there were discussions that how this particular company had come on board and how suddenly there was Indian regions that you know sensitive Indian sensitive Indian regions sensitive Indian regions that had started appearing on the portal and uh uh just to explain why this is significant because on the portal any subscriber would only be able to see the regions that have been ordered. So if I'm able to see a particular map or a region that has come from some other partner or some other subscriber. So
• 11:00 - 11:30 anything that's that comes on the portal is something that has come from. Of course we can't really go back and trace where the source is from for confidentiality clauses that Maxer lays down. So uh actually it did sort of become a matter of discussion before the palam attacks and we were trying to make some kind of connections or we were trying to wonder why why so many such a c sudden demand of for pictures of sensitive Indian regions. Yes. So there was just like there was just a discussion that was happening between me
• 11:30 - 12:00 and a few uh sources in the agencies. But suddenly after the attack we started thinking backwards of whether this had any kind of pahelgam uh connection. So that's how the story began and uh uh like you very rightly pointed out that you know it is an extremely expensive portal. So each image is available only for three lakh rupees. There are minimum but if a resolution goes up it can cost more. So, so where uh so because it is it has the most precise constellations
• 12:00 - 12:30 that is why it sort of provides very very high resolution. So it's marked uh so it's upper limit itself starts from 30 cm which is good enough to so explain this resolution. What is 30 cm? What what is 15? What is 10? So when we saying that uh any satellite image would have a resolution of 30 cmters we're talking about the pixel size. So the smaller the pixel size the clearer would be the image quality. So u 30 cm would
• 12:30 - 13:00 mean that you know you will be able to very clearly see the infrastructure of will you be able to see uh tell a man from a woman or will you be able to count the number of human beings at 30? Not at 30 you will be but you'll be able to get a sense of the infrastructure at 15 you can at 15 you'll be able to see uh you know people on the street how the streets are looking like. at 10 and lower you'll be able to really zoom into who exactly uh the people who are walking on the street. So that's the resolution. So the sharper the uh
• 13:00 - 13:30 resolution is the better view of the region you'd get. And at this point if you look at any other competition in the world which is making this facility and service available, Maxa tops that list and that's why it's pretty high in demand. It serves a whole range of government agencies from across the world. Uh which also then makes it questionable because under what laws does it fall like you know how uh like can we uh put Maxer under our ambit of law to say that you know what parts of
• 13:30 - 14:00 our region can you access and can you not access and what parts of our our country can you sell? Yes. And if you sell to somebody what kind of due diligence do you carry out? Right. Right. That means a foreign country spy agency can buy from you. Right. Right. So there are a lot of questions around that those and this man is a convict for having supplied sensitive information illegally to Pakistan earlier and nuclear information. Yeah. So uh even though uh since you pointed this out I wanted to
• 14:00 - 14:30 make bring this point also that uh since he he got done with his sentence Oeddullah say is nowhere he's like a ghost on the internet. He has no digital footprint. Uh we do have a Twitter account but we are not sure if it belongs to this particular Oadala side. Even for that account the last uh post that was made on the Twitter account was for 2014 also um of a man belonging to Pakistani origin but uh after that he's
• 14:30 - 15:00 been a complete zombie. The only existence that he has is on the Maxer portal's partner page which lists Obedul Dullah say as the owner and the primary contact person. So the man himself is a special purpose vehicle as is his company. Yes. Could be. So, so yeah, that's how the story started and there were a lot of uh you know there were a lot of uh coincidences that we could not ignore but we uh did our due diligence
• 15:00 - 15:30 and there were certain portals through in the the portals through which we could run to the point till where we had access to and then of course we took help of certain uh people within the agencies who had subscriptions to help us out with a little more precise data. we can't reveal uh their identities of course. So can you give a more detailed analysis of the numbers right? So what we did was we uh zeroed in on just Pelgam first on um the Max portal that
• 15:30 - 16:00 we had access to because we're not a paying partner. So we ran it through that and we then started to make a graph of how many orders were being placed monthly and that's the graph we have on your screen. Yes. Uh and I would like to caveat this by saying that in the story that has appeared we went with very conservative numbers like you said we went with 12 but later on when we did a much more precise search actually in the month of February there were through through some members. Yes, we uh did a
• 16:00 - 16:30 more precise search and we found that actually in February the number of orders were 30 30 and the previous 12 months one and a half per month and none at all right nobody knew right so uh even though like uh like we said that you know we had reached out we did our due diligence we reached out to Maxer on time we sent them an email with a very very detailed list of questions of whether a background check was conducted on this particular company because it
• 16:30 - 17:00 did have a very very strong history of uh criminal charges in the US itself. Uh and we did ask BSI and you know we had very very particular questions but they just got back to us saying that the source was not uh source was not BSI. So yeah. So that's and now they've removed his now they've removed now they've removed right. Yeah. So so so like uh so when we
• 17:00 - 17:30 started getting data we February was this very very jarring uptick in the number of orders. Uh yeah like you can see the graph and we'll put it behind us that you know you have orders that are being placed uh like you know key 2 3 2 so 14 in 12 months. Yeah. And then suddenly you will see it's so noticeable that you know it can't be ignored as a happy coincidence. Uh in March we saw that there were no orders at all. a day uh like in April on 12th there was a
• 17:30 - 18:00 there was an order and then uh it was again radio silence and then like you said 24th and 29th and since then there have been no orders again. So, so yeah, we started we started looking uh at uh vetting this particular data through various services that uh Maxer provides like you know every uh like like every paying partner you know that we could access to like ISRO has a better subscription so we ran it through them and you know there were a few private
• 18:00 - 18:30 companies so we ran it through them so we just wanted to be sure that we are backing our data and we are not making any conjectures um and that's how we went about it we also reached out to DSI to do due diligence to them. Um that you know we uh we sent out an email. We also could not find Did they respond? No, they did not. We reached out uh I think through all do they exist? I don't know. So, so yeah, I mean we did reach out and we did our due diligence and and just
• 18:30 - 19:00 for uh the consumption of our viewers also that you know I would like to put the homepage of BSI which claims to be uh a web developing uh you know high techch gsi you know they deal with a whole range of services uh with a very uh I mean that's just conjecture again that you know very basic website uh of for their services. So all that sort of raised our doubts but again we are not making any conjecture. We are just putting out facts for for our readers and for our viewers. All I can tell you
• 19:00 - 19:30 is that I did some of the coverage in the '9s more than 30 years back on the nuclear smuggling in Pakistan because Pakistani nuclear program was built almost entirely on smuggling and I got help from some specialist journalists. So there was Mark Hibs of nucleionics week and and many others. uh and through them one of the the phenomenon we discovered was that Pakistan's method was to set up these dodgy companies that
• 19:30 - 20:00 appeared did some business bought stuff for them transferred and very often disappeared and then later got caught and many of them got uh and this was and this was very specifically mentioned by the US in their indictment order also that you know how uh you know uh BSI just became a face to you know rule for the Pakistani Atomic Energy Commission and and they also specifically mentioned and I we will put that document also that how this was a national security
• 20:00 - 20:30 threat. So if it was a national security threat for the US there is no reason that it is not going to be a for for US's allies since they call us up. Yeah. So there were so so very very clearly this indictment report has you know uh highlighted some very uh jarring security uh lapses from their end because he used to use uh his company as a face to say that they were the cons they were the final users of this
• 20:30 - 21:00 product and then he was routing it and then taking it back to the economic energy and now you are also doing a story on his indictment his conviction right yeah we are going to be on the story uh and uh you know like the the aim is to just bring out facts and to and to just so fantastic job finally there is some window there is something to explore uh by way of where pelgam idea might have come from somebody's somebody's mind because this
• 21:00 - 21:30 is quite a bit of evidence I'm not saying it's evidence that can convict somebody in a court of law but this is too much evidence to toss away so many coinc Coincidences don't happen in real life. So once again, thank you very much. Thank you. Well done. [Music]