Rinson Jose, an Indian emigrant to Norway, has been linked to the Hezbollah pager blasts in Lebanon, which killed 12 people. Reports have suggested that Norta Global, a Bulgaria-based company owned by him, had a role in supplying the pagers.

Here’s What We Know About Rinson Jose So Far:

The name of an Indian emigrant to Norway has cropped up in the investigation into the pager blasts aimed at Hezbollah operatives, which killed 12 people in Lebanon and left thousands injured. Now a Norwegian citizen, Rinson Jose migrated to the country from Wayanad in Kerala and reports had initially suggested that a company owned by the 37-year-old in Bulgaria was involved in the supply of the pagers to the militant group.

Initial investigations had revealed that the pagers, which had reportedly been modified by Mossad to hide three grams of explosives in each device, were manufactured by a Taiwan-based company, Gold Apollo. In a statement, the company said, however, that the pager model used in the blast, AR-924, was actually manufactured and sold by BAC Consulting KFT, a company based in Hungary’s Budapest, which had been authorised to use its trademark. 

Then, on Thursday, two days after the pagers exploded, Bulgarian state security agency DANS said it was coordinating with the country’s interior ministry and probing the role of a company, whose name was later revealed to be Norta Global Ltd. The company, which was registered in Sofia in 2022, was found to be owned by a Norwegian, Rinson Jose. 

A day later, on Friday, however, DANS said the pagers used in the blasts in Lebanon were not imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria. 

“Following verifications, it has been indisputably established that no communication equipment corresponding to those that exploded on September 17 was imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria,” the agency was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.

It added that the company and its owner had “not carried out any transactions linked to the sale or purchase of the merchandise” or that “fall under laws on terrorism financing”.

Police in Norway’s Oslo said they have opened a “preliminary investigation into the information that has emerged”.

‘Went To Norway To Study’

According to a report by news agency IANS, Jose went to Norway to pursue higher studies a few years ago. He briefly worked in London before going back to Oslo. 

According to his LinkedIn page, he has also worked for almost five years in digital customer support for Norwegian press group DN Media, AFP reported. DN Media told newspaper Verdens Gang that he has been on an overseas work trip since Tuesday and that they have not been able to reach him.

Relatives told IANS that Jose is settled with his wife in Oslo and has a twin brother based in London. “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 the 37-year-old, told the news agency on Friday. 

He added that they have not been able to contact Jose’s wife either. 

Norta Global, founded by Jose, declared a revenue of $ 725,000 (approximately Rs 6 crore) for consulting activities outside the European Union last year. 

(With inputs from agencies)
 

Paris:

It’s around 3:30 in the afternoon on September 17. People in Lebanon are going about their daily business, doing the shopping, having a haircut, conducting meetings.

Hundreds of pagers across the country, and even outside its borders, then simultaneously bleep with a message and explode, wounding and killing their owners and also bystanders.

The communications devices were used by members of the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which swiftly blamed Israel for the operation, as did several international media organisations.

Israel, according to its convention for operations outside its borders, neither confirmed nor denied the charge.

But observers say that the simultaneous explosions bear all the hallmarks of an operation by Israel, which appears to have infiltrated the supply chain of the pager production and inserted tiny but potent explosives inside.

Israel may have even set up a shell company to supply the devices to Hezbollah in a years-long project that would seem fantastical even in an espionage thriller, according to analysts.

But that was not the end. A day later, on September 18, around the same time in the afternoon, another low-fi gadget, the walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah cadres, exploded, even amid the funerals for those killed in the pager attacks.

The subsequent day, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who himself had told group members to use low-fi devices so as not to be targeted by Israel through the positioning of their smartphones, made his first public comments, admitting an “unprecedented blow” but also vowing “tough retribution and just punishment” for Israel.

Even though there is next to no doubt Israel was behind the operation, questions abounded. Why now? Is this the start of the widely-feared Israeli offensive into southern Lebanon? Or has Israel simply activated the explosives now simply because it feared the whole operation risked being compromised?

‘IN THE MIDST OF THEIR ORDINARY LIVES’

The explosions were felt Hezbollah’s strongholds throughout Lebanon: the southern Beirut suburbs, the south of the country and the Bekaa Valley in the east, as well as in Syria.

At least 37 people were killed in the two attacks and thousands injured.

The wounded included Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. But those killed also included a 10-year-old girl and another child. As the hospitals filled up the most common wounds were mutilated hands and eyes.

“Hezbollah suffered a very serious blow on a tactical level, a very impressive and comprehensive one that affects the operational side, the cognitive side,” said Yoram Schweitzer, a former intelligence officer now at the The Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University.

Peter Harling, founder of the Synaps Lab think tank added: “The targets may have been Hezbollah members, but many were caught in the midst of their ordinary lives, and in the heart of their communities.”

“This is also a breach that is extraordinarily hard to explain.”

UN rights chief Volker Turk warned that the simultaneous targeting of thousands of individuals “whether civilians or members of armed groups” without knowledge as to who was around them at the time “violates international human rights law”.

International humanitarian law prohibits the use of “booby traps” precisely to avoid putting civilians at grave risk and “produce the devastating scenes that continue to unfold across Lebanon”, said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa Director at Human Rights Watch.

‘ISRAELI FRONT’

Espionage professionals have meanwhile expressed their admiration for how the operation was put together.

“It’s not a technological feat,” said a person working for a European intelligence service, asking not to be named. But “it’s the result of human intelligence and heavy logistics.”

The small devices, bearing the name of the firm Gold Apollo in Taiwan, were intercepted by Israeli services before their arrival in Lebanon, according to multiple security sources who spoke to AFP, asking not to be named.

But the Taiwanese company denied having manufactured them and pointed to its Hungarian partner BAC.

Founded in 2022, the company is registered in Budapest. Its CEO, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, appears there as the only employee.

The devices in question have never been on Hungarian soil, according to the Hungarian authorities.

The New York Times, citing three intelligence sources, said BAC was “part of an Israeli front” with at least two other shell companies were created as well to mask the real identities of the people creating the pagers who were Israeli intelligence officers.

It described the pagers as a “modern day Trojan Horse” after the wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy in the Trojan War.

‘IMPRESSIVE OPERATION’

The attack comes nearly a year after Hezbollah ally Hamas carried out its October 7 attack on Israel, sparking the war in Gaza.

The focus of Israel’s firepower has since been on the Palestinian territory, but Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops have exchanged fire almost daily across the border region since October, forcing thousands on both sides to flee their homes.

Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the focus of the war was shifting towards Lebanon, while the government said securing the northern front was a key objective, in order to allow Israelis evacuated from the area to return home.

Schweitzer said that despite the spectacular nature of the device operation it did not represent the end of Israel’s work to degrade Hezbollah.

“I don’t think this impressive operation that has its tactical gains… is getting into the strategic layers yet.

“It does not change the equation, it is not a decisive victory. But it sends another signal to Hezbollah, Iran and others,” he said.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)