Soumya Pillai
Two months before terrorists killed 26 people in Kashmir, a top US-based space tech company saw an unprecedented spike in orders for high-resolution satellite images of Pahalgam and its surrounding areas. Between 2 and 22 February 2025, at least 12 orders—double the usual number—were placed with Maxar Technologies, whose roster of clients includes government and defence agencies across the world. Orders for Pahalgam satellite images started appearing on the portal in June 2024, just months after Maxar acquired a new partner: A Pakistan-based geo-spatial company linked to federal crimes in the US.
The data does not show whether the orders for Pahalgam satellite images were placed by the Pakistani firm, Business Systems International Pvt Ltd (BSI). But defence analysts and experts as well as scientists that ThePrint spoke to said the coincidence cannot be dismissed given the track record of the company’s founder, Obaidullah Syed.
The Pakistani-American businessman was found guilty and sentenced to a year in prison by a US federal court for illegally exporting high-performance computer equipment and software application solutions from America to the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) — the agency that designs and tests high explosives and nuclear weapon parts, and develops solid-fuelled ballistic missiles.
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