The source of the Hezbollah electronic pagers that exploded in Lebanon, killing at least 12 people and injuring as many as 2,800 others, remained a mystery on Wednesday, after a Taiwanese company and the government of Hungary denied links to the devices.

Two photos published to social media after the Tuesday explosions show the burned and damaged back panels of pagers with “GOLD” written in text above a model number, “AR-9.” The design of the text matches that emblazoned on the back of the “AR-924” pager model produced by Taiwanese pager manufacturer Gold Apollo Co.

Gold Apollo, however, said it did not design or manufacture the devices in question. It said those pagers were “entirely handled” by a Hungarian company called BAC Consulting KFT, which was authorized to use Gold Apollo’s brand trademark in some regions.

The Washington Post could not reach BAC for comment. But Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs contested Gold Apollo’s account, posting on social media that BAC is a “trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary. It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary.”

Kovacs added that Hungarian national security services were “cooperating with all relevant international partner agencies and organizations.”

Experts have said that the electronic pagers – used by the Hezbollah militant group because they were considered more secure than cellphones – were probably rigged with explosives at some point before they were delivered to Lebanon.

Hezbollah blamed Israel and threatened to retaliate. The Israel Defense Forces, which does not typically announce operations abroad, declined to comment on whether it was responsible.

Hsu Ching-kuang, Gold Apollo’s founder, told reporters at the company’s headquarters in New Taipei City on Wednesday that he had no idea how a pager could be turned into an explosive. “I’m just doing my business, why am I getting involved in a terrorist attack?” Hsu said.

The electronic pagers only have a receiving function, and the battery inside is approximately the size of a AA battery, with no possibility of causing an explosion that could lead to casualties, according to Gold Apollo.

Hsu said that BAC had been selling the pagers using Gold Apollo’s brand for less than two years.

BAC Consulting KFT was established in 2022, according to documents filed at the Justice Ministry. Its main job was listed as consulting, but it also was registered to do other things, including produce electric devices and parts of electric devices and work with telecommunications.

BAC’s website, which was accessed by The Post before it was taken down Wednesday, said its mission was to work “internationally as agents of change with a network of consultants.” The site listed BAC’s founder and CEO as Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono. The site said she studied in Britain at the London School of Economics, SOAS and University College London, where she earned a PhD in physics. A LinkedIn profile associated with a Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono says she speaks seven languages and also worked as an independent expert at the European Commission.

The Post was unable to reach her via emails, phone calls or WhatsApp messages. NBC News said that when it reached a woman by that name on the phone, she said, “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.”

The Post also visited two Budapest addresses listed in the BAC company filings.

At the first, identified as the company’s headquarters, an A4 sheet of paper in a window pane on the front door read “BAC Consulting.” But when a reporter for The Post knocked on the door – on Wednesday afternoon during working hours – no one answered. The place appeared empty.

The building is in an area known for its sports club and its swimmers and water polo team.

The second address in the company filings was a block of apartment buildings, about 40 minutes away on public transportation. A neighbor on the listed floor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said that she knew the family that lived there “very well” but that the apartment, which had a security door with three locks, was usually empty. She hadn’t seen Bársony-Arcidiacono in three or four years, she said.

The neighbor said Bársony-Arcidiacono had been educated in physics and at one point was trying to get a job in Italy, where her mother was based.

Questions about where the digital pagers originated, and whether they had been tampered with at some point in the supply chain, began to swirl immediately after Tuesday’s explosions. Those questions multiplied after a second wave of explosions on Wednesday that included handheld radios, according to Lebanese health officials and the state news agency.

Taiwan’s Economy Ministry said in a statement earlier Wednesday that it had contacted Gold Apollo about the pagers, which “questioned whether the product was indeed theirs after reviewing the media reports and images, and they judged that the pager may have been tampered with after being exported.”

Founded in 1995, Gold Apollo is one of the primary producers of pagers in the world. New Taipei City’s Economic Development Department said the company has no record of violations of laws or regulations.

Gold Apollo exported 260,000 pagers from 2022 through last month, including almost 41,000 sets this year alone, according to data from the ministry. Most were exported to Europe and the United States, and there were no records of direct exports to Lebanon, the ministry said. This did not, however, rule out shipments through a third-party company.

The incident has alarmed many on the island about the implications of being involved in a global conflict with the backdrop of having to deal with its own problem of growing threats from China.

While Taiwan has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine during Russia’s invasion, the government has remained relatively silent on the war in Gaza. Hsiao Hsu-tsen, director of the foundation of former president Ma Ying-jeou, called on the Taiwanese government to release the details of its investigation to prevent potential “retaliation” from Hezbollah. Ma belongs to the Taiwanese opposition Kuomintang and has been a vocal critic of President Lai Ching-te’s administration.

Security experts pointed out the difficulties in strengthening the security level of the pagers.

“Preventing such attacks is very difficult,” said Yang Ming-hour, a computer engineering professor at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taiwan. He noted that pagers have very limited functions and few users, making it impractical to implement complex security monitoring on these simple and cheap devices.

“If more security measures were required, it would heavily burden manufacturers as meeting security standards would raise device costs,” Yang said.

“Pagers are not high-tech equipment, nor are they subject to export controls. Therefore, the regulatory intensity for them is naturally lower,” said Tzeng Yisuo, an associate research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a state-funded think tank in Taipei.

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(c) Washington Post