ISLAMABAD – Iran on Tuesday triumphed in the arrest of Abdulmalik Rigi,
the 31-year-old leader of Jundallah (Soldiers of God), a Sunni insurgent
group accused by Tehran of undertaking a string of terror attacks in
the country that have claimed scores of lives over the past few years.
Intelligence
Minister Heydar Moslehi described the capture of its most wanted
fugitive as a “great defeat” for the United States, Britain and Israel,
which it has accused of supporting the group. “We have clear documents
proving that Rigi was in cooperation with American, Israeli and British
intelligence services,” Moslehi was reported as saying.
However,
while the capture of Rigi is a significant event, Jundallah, which has
strong roots among ethnic Balochis in Pakistan, could emerge even
stronger from this apparent setback as radical anti-Shi’ite members of
Jundallah now linked to al-Qaeda are positioned to carry on without him.
Jundallah carries out its operations against the Iranian
Shi’ite regime mostly in Iran’s southeastern province of
Sistan-Balochistan, where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan
meet, but its main base is in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Jundallah
has claimed it does not seek to break away from Iran to form a separate
Balochistan autonomous region; rather, it says it is fighting on behalf
of the Baloch popu…