Malik Rigi captured on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan,
Press TV.
February 23, 2010
Leader of Iranian Sunni rebel group Jundallah arrested: report
Press TV.
February 23, 2010
Leader of Iranian Sunni rebel group Jundallah arrested: report
TEHRAN, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) — Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the Pakistan-based Iranian Sunni rebel group Jundallah, has been captured, Iran’s
English-language satellite channel Press TV reported Tuesday.
Rigi was reportedly captured on a flight from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to Kyrgyzstan, Press TV said.
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted by Press TV as saying that Rigi was arrested outside the country as he was preparing
for a new act of sabotage and was consequently transferred to Iran.
According to the official IRNA news agency, Najjar said Rigi was arrested during an operation with the cooperation of military, security and Information
Ministry forces.
The detention of Rigi followed several months of extensive works of the forces, which were determined to arrest him alive, Najjar said.
Rigi was an agent of foreign countries and operated their plans and conspiracies, he added.
Jundallah, or Peoples Resistant Movement of Iran, is an insurgent Sunni Islamic organization based in Balochistan of Pakistan that claims to fight for
the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran.
The group was founded by and had been under the command of Rigi. It has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and Pakistan and has
been behind numerous acts of terror, kidnapping and smuggling narcotics.
In August, Abdolhamid Rigi, the brother of Abdolmalek Rigi, told reporters in Zahedan, the capital city of Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-
Balouchestan, that the United States had a supporting role in launching terrorist plots inside Iran.
“After meeting with the U.S. officials in the U.S. embassy in Pakistan four years ago, they (the U.S. officials) promised to help us with everything we
needed,” said Abdolhamid Rigi, who had been captured by Pakistani forces and extradited to Iran.
“We were deceived by them (the U.S. officials) … We received monetary and armed supports from the United States … We received orders from them”
to carry out the terrors inside Iran, he said.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-02/23/c_13184763.htm
Related links:
Iran 'arrests leader of Sunni militants Jundullah'
Iranian Tv pictures showed Mr Rigi being escorted from a plane
Iranian authorities have arrested the leader of the Sunni Muslim militant group Jundullah, according to reports on state television.
The Arabic language channel al-Alam said Abdolmalek Rigi had been held in eastern Iran, but gave no more details.
He is said to be behind a series of deadly bombings and killings in Sistan-Baluchistan province.
Last October 42 people, including six Revolutionary Guard commanders, were killed in a suicide bombing in Zahedan.
The semi-official Fars news agency, quoting the Iranian intelligence ministry, said the arrest took place of the "Jundullah leader along with two of his
group members".
ABDOLMALEK RIGI & JUNDULLAH
- Leader of Jundullah believed to be 26-years-old
- The Sunni Baluchi nationalist group emerged 2003
- Accused by Iran of links with the US and Pakistan
- Thought to be linked to drug smugglers in Iranian border province of Sistan-Baluchistan
- Brother Abdolhamid Rigi on death row in Iran
- October 2009 a Jundullah suicide bomb kills 31, including 6 top Revolutionary Guard commanders
- May 2009 bomb in a mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan kills 19
- April 2007 Mr Rigi appears on Voice of America radio
- February 2007 a bomb kills 11, including Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in Zahedan
- March 2006 gun attack kills 22
- Sources: BBC, Stratfor
The official IRNA news agency later said he had been flying to an Arab country via Pakistan before his arrest.
"His plane was ordered to land and then he was arrested after the plane was searched," Iranian lawmaker Mohammed Dehgan was quoted by news
agency AFP as saying.
Press TV, the Iranian state-run English language service, said Mr Rigi had been in a US military base 24 hours before his capture.
It alleged the US had issued Mr Rigi with an Afghan passport.
It also said he had recently travelled to "European countries".
None of these claims could be independently verified.
Jundullah was founded in 2002 to defend the Baluchi minority in the poor, remote and lawless region of south-east Iran.
The group has been using neighbouring Pakistan as a base, and in the past the Iranians have accused Pakistan of allowing them to operate there.
Mr Rigi has claimed in the past that the group does not seek to break away from Iran but that violence is necessary to draw attention to discrimination.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8529625.stm
Iran arrests Sunni militant leader
February 23, 2010 3:49 a.m. EST
Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian authorities have arrested the leader of a Sunni militant group blamed for dozens of attacks inside the country, state media
said Tuesday.
Abdolmalek Rigi, who heads Jundallah (Soldiers of God), was taken into custody in eastern Iran while he was en route from the United Arab Emirates
to Kyrgyzstan, Press TV reported.
Tehran has blamed Jundallah for carrying out deadly bombings, abductions and targeted killings in the southeastern Sistan-Balochistan province,
which borders Pakistan. It accuses the group of trying to destabilize Iran with the backing of the West.
Jundallah claims it has no separatist aspirations but rather it wants the predominantly Shiite country to stop persecuting the Sunni Balochis who live in
the province.
The province lies about 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) southeast of Tehran.
Iran said Jundallah was behind a suicide bombing in the province that killed more than 40 people -- including several members of Iran's Revolutionary
Guard -- in October.
Jundallah also is blamed for a mosque attack in May that killed more than a dozen worshippers and injured at least 55 in the province.
And in 2007, a car bomb that struck a military bus in the province's capital, Zahedan, was also the work of Jundallah, Iran says.
The bomb went off as soon as the bus, which belonged to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, arrived to pick up military personnel at a barracks. It
killed at least 11 Guard members.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/23/iran.militant/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Iran accuses US of backing rebel leader
Malaysia News.Net
Tuesday 23rd February, 2010 (IANS)
Iran Tuesday accused the US of backing Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the Pakistan-based Iranian Sunni rebel group Jundallah, Xinhua reported.
The US has dismissed the Iranian accusations.
Iran's state-run IRIB TV Tuesday showed a footage of Rigi captured by Iranian forces and being led out of a plane by some security officials in an Iranian
airport.
Rigi was reportedly captured on a flight from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan, Iran's English-language Press TV said without elaborating.
Rigi was at a US base in Afghanistan before being arrested, Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi was quoted as saying by Press TV.
At a news conference after Rigi's capture Tuesday, Moslehi shed light on Rigi's arrest and his links with foreign elements, the report said.
Rigi had contacts with US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israeli foreign intelligence service Mossad, and he had even met NATO military chief
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Afghanistan in April 2008, Moslehi was quoted as saying.
Also, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast stressed the group led by Rigi was supported by the US, the official IRNA news agency
reported.
The group, founded by Rigi, has been identified by Iran and Pakistan as a terrorist organisation.
Jundallah, or Peoples Resistant Movement of Iran, is an insurgent Sunni Islamic organisation based in Balochistan of Pakistan that claims to fight for
the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran.
In his weekly press briefing Tuesday, Mehman-Parast said the support of the US for Rigi was a disgrace both for Washington and other countries
claiming respect for human rights.
Iran's intelligence minister said Rigi had been in contact with some Eeropean Union countries and had travelled to those countries too, Press TV
reported.
He was being monitored for five months before being captured by the Iranian forces, Moslehi added, reiterating that no foreign intelligence service
helped Iran in Rigi's capture.
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted by Press TV as saying that Rigi was arrested outside the country as he was preparing
for a new act of sabotage and was consequently transferred to Iran.
In August, Abdolhamid Rigi, the brother of Abdolmalek Rigi, told reporters in Zahedan, the capital city of Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-
Balouchestan, that the US had a supporting role in launching some plots inside Iran.
However, the US Tuesday dismissed Iran's accusations of links to Abdolmalek Rigi.
http://www.malaysianews.net/story/604993
