NEW TAIPEI, Taiwan Sept 18 V7N — Taiwan's Gold Apollo stated on Wednesday that the pagers involved in the recent detonations in Lebanon were not manufactured by them, but rather by a company called BAC, which holds a license to use Gold Apollo's brand. This clarification comes in the wake of a tragic incident on Tuesday, where at least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon.

Images of the destroyed pagers, analyzed by Reuters, showed a format and stickers consistent with those made by Gold Apollo. However, the company's founder and president, Hsu Ching-Kuang, emphasized that the product was not theirs, stating, "It was only that it had our brand on it." He explained that the AR-924 model was produced and sold by BAC, and that Gold Apollo only provides brand trademark authorization without involvement in the design or manufacturing of the product.

While Hsu initially mentioned that the company with the license was based in Europe, he later declined to comment on BAC's specific location. During Hsu's meeting with reporters, police officials arrived at the company's offices, indicating the seriousness of the situation.

Hezbollah fighters reportedly began using these pagers under the belief that they could evade Israeli tracking. Hsu expressed his confusion regarding how the pagers could have been rigged to explode, stating, "We may not be a large company but we are a responsible one. This is very embarrassing."
In a related development, sources indicated that Israel's Mossad spy agency had planted explosives inside the 5,000 pagers imported by Hezbollah months prior to the detonations. Iran-backed Hezbollah has announced that it is conducting a "security and scientific investigation" into the causes of the blasts.
As the situation unfolds, Gold Apollo finds itself entangled in a complex web of international scrutiny and responsibility, asserting its innocence while grappling with the implications of the incident.

END/WD/RH/