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Jundallah
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Jundallah (Soldiers of Allah) (also known as Iranian People's Resistance Movement) is an insurgent Sunni Islamic organization based in Balochistan that claims to be fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran. It is believed to have 1,000 fighters and claims to have killed 400 Iranian soldiers.. It is a part of the Baloch insurgency in Pakistan and in Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan Province. The group has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and Pakistan and many believe it is linked to Al-Qaeda.
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Encyclopedia
Jundallah (Soldiers of Allah) (also known as Iranian People's Resistance Movement) is an insurgent Sunni Islamic organization based in Balochistan that claims to be fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran. It is believed to have 1,000 fighters and claims to have killed 400 Iranian soldiers.. It is a part of the Baloch insurgency in Pakistan and in Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan Province. The group has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and Pakistan and many believe it is linked to Al-Qaeda. It is also believed to receive support from the US government.
Background
Peoples Resistant Movement of Iran (PRMI), former Jundallah of Iran, is a terrorist organization that believed to have emerged on the scene in 2003 and it is known for attacks against high profile Iranian targets, especially government and security officials. Despite Iranian claims of PRMI's connection with the Pakistani Jundallah, no proof of such link has been found by independent sources. Iran also accuses the United States and other foreign elements of backing PRMI, possibly from Pakistani territory with Islamabad's support, despite Pakistan's history of cooperating with Iran to suppress Baloch nationalism, whereas PPMI adamantly denies any connections to al-Qaeda or the Taliban, as well as foreign governments such as the United States and Great Britain.In an interview with Dan Rather, Rigi describes the Iranian military as "cowardly" and in that video , he cuts off a person's head in front of the camera in Al-Qaeda style.
In a October 17, 2008 interview aired on Al-Arabiya TV, its leader Abdolmalek Rigi stated the group had given "over 2000 men" military, political and ideological training but that the number of its members "in the mountains does not exceed 200."
Views and goals
The group's leader is known to be Abdolmalek Rigi (also spelled Abd Al-Malek Rigi and also known as Emir Abdul Malek Baloch). In a May telephone interview with Rooz, (Iranian online newspaper), Rigi defended PRMI's use of violence as a just means to defend Baloch and Sunni Muslim interests in Iran and to draw attention to the difficult economic situation and ethnic discrimination of the Baloch people , whom he describes as Iran's poorest. Significantly, Rigi declared himself an Iranian and Iran as his home. He also denied harboring separatist aspirations. According to Rigi, PRMI's goal is to improve the life of Iranian Baloch and Sunnis and not to separate from Iran or even demand autonomy.
In a October 17, 2008 interview aired on Al-Arabiya TV, Abdolmalek stated, "the only thing we ask of the Iranian government is to be citizens. We want to have the same rights as the Iranian Shiite people. That's it." He described his group as an Islamic awakening movement but denied any ties with Al Qaeda or the Taliban. He also told the interviewer that despite the fact that "many of us have been martyred ... we are prepared to reach an understanding" with the Iranian government.
Alleged support from the United States Government
According to an April 2007 report by Brian Ross and Christopher Isham of ABC News, the United States government had been secretly encouraging and advising the Jundullah in its attacks against Iranian targets. This support is said to have started in 2005 and arranged so that the United States provided no direct funding to the group, which would require congressional oversight and attract media attention. The report was denied by Pakistan official sources .
Alexis Debat, one of the sources quoted by Ross and Isham in in their report alleging US support for the Jundullah, resigned from ABC News in June 2007, after ABC officials discovered he faked several interviews while working for the company. .
Brian Ross, the correspondent who worked most closely with Mr. Debat, said the Jundullah story had many sources. “We’re only worried about the things Debat supplied, not about the substance of that story,” he said in regard to the Jundullah report.So far, ABC has found nothing that would undermine the stories Mr. Debat worked on, Mr. Ross said last night. But he acknowledged that as the stories of fabrications continue to roll in, the network “at some point has to question whether anything he said can be believed.”
Fars News Agency, an Iranian state run news agency, reported that the United States government is involved in PRMI's terrorists acts. On April 2, 2007, Abdul Malik Rigi, appeared on the Iranian branch of the Voice of America, the official broadcasting service of the United States government, which identified Rigi as "the leader of popular Iranian resistance movement". This incident resulted in public condemnation by Persian-American communities in the U.S, as well as the Iranian government.
Alleged support from Pakistan
Hossein Ali Shahriari, Zahedan's representative in parliament, rhetorically asked, "Why does our diplomatic apparatus not seriously confront the Pakistani government for harboring bandits and regime's enemies? Why do security, military and police officials not take more serious action?". Following publication of an interview in ‘Ayyaran newspaper, which has since been closed down on the order of Hojjatoleslam Nekunam, on 17 March 2007 he stated that there were 700 people then awaiting execution in Sistan-Baluchistan province, whose sentences had been confirmed by the Supreme Court
Arrest of Waheed brothers
On July 3, 2004, Karachi police arrested two doctor brothers (Dr. Akmal Waheed, a cardiologist, and Dr. Arshad Waheed, an orthopaedic surgeon), who were missing, and presumed kidnapped since June 17. The police claimed to have recovered a car, the men's passports and visa cards from their possession. The doctors were said to have close links to Pakistani Jundullah and Al-Qaeda, as they were providing shelter and financial and medical support to the terrorists, police claimed.
They were charged with providing medical assistance and protection to the activists. They went underground after arrest of Shahzad Bajwa, the frontman and Ata-ur-Rehman, the chief of Jundullah, the spokesman further claimed. During investigations and later before the court, Ata-ur-Rehman, the chief of Jundullah, had confessed that Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed had close links to him and were extending help by all means, the police spokesman added.
Death penalty for Jundullah activists
In February 2006 the Karachi anti-terrorist court handed down the death penalty and life imprisonment for eleven activists of Jundullah group for attacking the convoy of former Corps Commander Karachi, and the previous Vice Chief of Army Staff, General Ahsan Saleem Hyat in Karachi on June 10, 2004. The activists were Ata-ur-Rehman, Shahzad Bajwa, Aziz, Danish Imam, Khurram Saifullah Shoaib Siddiqui, Rao Khalid, Shahzad Mukhtar, Adnan, Yaqoob Saeed, and Najeebullah belonging to a terrorist group nameld Jundullah. They were convicted of attacking the convoy of Genera Hayat near Clifton Bridge. Some 10 people, including six soldiers and three police personnel, were killed and 21 injured in the attack.
The judge also handed down 14-year and 10-year prison terms for planting a bomb and damaging public property, respectively. The court also ordered the convicts to pay Rs 100,000 each to the heirs of the deceased, along with Rs 50,000 each as a fine for an attempt to murder charge and another Rs 50,000 fine each for damage to public property. In case of default, they will have to serve an additional six month jail sentence.
Once the judge announced the judgment, all the accused present in the court got to their feet and started to chant "Allah-o-Akbar" and flash victory signs. Family members and relatives of the accused were also present in the courtyard of the court.
Five accused (Bilal, Qasim, Hammad, Shahab and Tayyeb) have already been declared absconding by the court.
Defense councils said that they would challenge the judgment in Sindh High Court within the stipulated period of seven days.
On 21 February, 2006 an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan sentenced 11 members of Jundullah to death for the attack on General Hayat.
Notable attacks
2007 Zahedan bombing
On February 14, 2007, a car bomb and gunfire directed at a bus killed 18 members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Guards commander Qasem Rezaei said, "This blind terrorist operation led to the martyrdom of 18 citizens of Zahedan" and attributed the attack to "insurgents and elements of insecurity." Jundallah claimed responsibility for the attack on 15 February .
The Iranian government arrested many people in response to the bombing, including Nasrollah Shanbezehi, who was soon executed by the Revolutionary Guards . It also arrested five suspects, two of whom were carrying camcorders and grenades when they were arrested, while the police killed the main "agent" of the attack.. Among the arrestees was Said Qanbarzehi, a Balochi, who was hanged in Zahedan prison on 27 May 2007. He had been sentenced to death at the age of 17 along with six other Balochi men -- Javad Naroui, Masoud Nosratzehi, Houshang Shahnavazi, Yahya Sohrabzehi, Ali Reza Brahoui and Abdalbek Kahrazehi (also known as Abdalmalek) -- in March 2007, despite the absolute international prohibition on the execution of child offenders. Balochi sources suggest that the seven may have been arrested because of their family ties to those suspected of involvement in the February bus bombing. According Sistan-Baluchistan Provincial Television, 15-17 March 2007, said that those who "confessed" had been tortured.
Mass adbuction
Jundallah militants kidnapped 21 Iranian truck drivers near Chabar on August 19, 2007 and brought them to Pakistan. Pakistani forces later freed all of them.
Police abduction
On June 13, 2008, 16 police in southeastern Iran were abducted and brought into Pakistan. In December 2008, Jundallah announced that it had killed all the hostages.
Saravan bombing
In a rare suicide bombing in Iran, a car bomb was driven into a security building in Saravan, Iran, on December 29, 2008. The explosion killed four Iranians.
Saravan ambush
On January 25, 2009, 12 Iranian policemen were ambushed and killed by Jundallah near Saravan.
See also
External links
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