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21 August 2024 at 3:50:16 pm

Persistent Eye

With the successful launch of the EOS-05 aboard the GSLV-F17, India has finally acquired its first dedicated Earth-imaging satellite designed to operate from a geosynchronous orbit. The imaging satellite is a significant step towards strategic self-reliance and will make us less dependent on foreign technology and intelligence. The imaging satellite gives us something every serious space power needs: the ability to watch, rather than merely look. Given the magnitude of our threats and...

Persistent Eye

With the successful launch of the EOS-05 aboard the GSLV-F17, India has finally acquired its first dedicated Earth-imaging satellite designed to operate from a geosynchronous orbit. The imaging satellite is a significant step towards strategic self-reliance and will make us less dependent on foreign technology and intelligence. The imaging satellite gives us something every serious space power needs: the ability to watch, rather than merely look. Given the magnitude of our threats and challenges, persistent surveillance is the only way out. Our very own imaging satellite was perhaps the single-most important element missing during Operation Sindoor, where we otherwise demonstrated our skill in precision targeting. Nearly 36,000 km above the Earth, the satellite will have a vastly different vantage point from conventional low-Earth-orbit satellites, which periodically pass over a particular area and provide snapshots. EOS-05 is designed to repeatedly observe large swathes of territory, including the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions. A satellite that passes overhead can tell you what happened when it was there. But persistent eye can tell you what is happening real-time. This matters enormously when the subject is a rapidly changing battlefield or in monitoring activity along a remote border. India has long depended on a combination of its own satellites and imagery acquired from foreign commercial and government sources. The less we look elsewhere for strategic eyes, the greater is our autonomy. EOS-05 strengthens the country’s capacity for continuous intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. It can add another layer to monitoring the Line of Actual Control and other sensitive borders, track developments across the Indian Ocean and provide commanders with a more persistent picture of a fast-moving situation. There is a civilian dividend, too. The same ability to repeatedly observe a large area can prove invaluable during cyclones, cloudbursts, floods and forest fires, when conditions can change faster than conventional satellite revisits allow. Its visible, infrared, multispectral and hyperspectral imaging capabilities can also assist agriculture, environmental monitoring and the management of natural resources. Without compromising national security, ISRO should regularly release a non-sensitive image of interest from EOS-05. If a dramatic natural event occurs, point the satellite at it and show the public what India's new eye can see. There is also a historical irony here. India could have possessed this capability several years earlier had the EOS-03 mission not failed in 2021. The successful launch of EOS-05 is, in that sense, a recovery of lost ground. For a country surrounded by difficult borders, exposed to an increasingly contested maritime domain and operating in an era of rapidly escalating technological warfare, knowing what is happening is the first condition of knowing what to do. India has spent decades learning to reach space. It is now learning to keep an eye on Earth.

India working on logistics of Tahawwur Rana's extradition

  • PTI
  • Feb 14, 2025
  • 3 min read

Updated: Feb 18, 2025

Tahawwur Rana

Washington: India is working on the logistics of Tahawwur Rana's surrender and extradition from the US, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has said, as President Donald Trump announced that his administration has given the go-ahead to extradite the 26/11 terror attack accused “to face justice".

“This is an issue on which the US authorities have taken very clear decisions. I think you've seen the President announce it himself from the White House podium" the decision of the US to extradite Rana, Misri said at a press conference here on Thursday.


During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Tahawwur Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.


In response to a question by PTI on the timeframe by when Rana will be extradited to India, Misri said: "We are working on the logistics of his surrender and extradition to India. There are a few final steps to be completed. The two sides are in touch on this particular issue.”


The India-US joint statement issued during the Prime Minister's visit to the US notes that Modi and Trump reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.

“They committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in order to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021," the joint statement said.


“Recognising a shared desire to bring to justice those who would harm our citizens, the US announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved," it said.


The leaders further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.

"The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors,” the joint statement added.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.

Speaking at the joint press meet, Trump said "Today I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and very evil people of the world, and having to do with the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, to face justice in India. So, he is going back to India to face justice."


The extradition of Rana was cleared by the US Supreme Court in January as it rejected his review petition in the case.


India last month said it was working with American authorities for the early extradition of Rana.


"The US Supreme Court on January 21 declined to hear a petition from the accused. We are now working with the US side on procedural issues for early extradition to India of the accused in the Mumbai terror attack," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said.


In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.

-PTI

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