An Indian-born entrepreneur, who is a Norwegian citizen, has been allegedly linked to the pager blasts that have left at least 12 dead and thousands more wounded in Lebanon. Kerala-born Rinson Jose hails from Wayanad and holds a Norwegian passport, having settled with his wife in Oslo, Norway.
Jose is reportedly the owner of Norta Global, a company registered in Bulgaria and is believed to have supplied the pager explosives to Lebanon. While the pagers were manufactured by a Hungarian firm, BAC Consulting, under the trademark of Taiwanese firm Gold Apollo, they were purportedly acquired through Norta Global.
Was Jose Behind The Blasts?
There is no indication that Jose was aware of any clandestine plot to equip the pagers with high explosives or that the ultimate buyer was collaborating with Israel’s security services, according to UK-based Daily Mail. The shell company, Norta Global LTD, was registered to an apartment building in Budapest that houses nearly 200 other firms, the newspaper added.
After reports about Jose’s ties to the Lebanon explosions emerged, his relatives on Friday said that they trust him and he will be not involved in the Lebanon pager blasts. “We speak daily over the phone. However, for the last three days, we have had no contact with Jose. He is a straightforward person and we trust him fully. He will not be part of any wrongdoing. He may have been trapped in these blasts,” Thankachen, a relative of Jose, was quoted as saying by IANS.
Thankachen said that they have also had no contact with Joe’s wife for many days now. A few years back, Jose went to Norway for higher studies. He briefly worked in London before returning to Oslo. Apart from having his own firm, Jose also works in Oslo and has a twin brother based in London. Meanwhile, a neighbour of Jose in Wayanad also said that he has known Jose for a long time and has been found to be a very nice person.
Who Is Behind The Blasts?
On Friday, authorities in Taiwan and Bulgaria denied involvement in the supply chain of thousands of pagers that detonated on Tuesday in Lebanon in a deadly blow to Hezbollah. Tuesday’s attack, and another on Wednesday involving exploding hand-held radios used by Hezbollah, together killed 37 people and wounded about 3,000 in Lebanon.
How or when the pagers were weaponised and remotely detonated remains a public mystery and the hunt for answers has involved Taiwan, Bulgaria, Norway and Romania. Israel was responsible for the pager explosions that raised the stakes in a growing conflict between the two sides. Israel has not directly commented on the attacks.
Taiwan and Bulgaria
Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that Hungary-based company BAC to which the pagers were traced had a licence to use its brand. “The components are (mainly) low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries,” Taiwan’s Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei told reporters.
(With agency inputs)
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