– JUNDALLAH

 

JundAllah (Soldiers of Allah) is a name used often in titels of Islamic radical and militant organizations. There is more then one group which named itself JundAllah.

JundAllah organization surfaced in 2003 in Pakistan following the investigation of the bloody attack on a Hazara Shiite Mosque in Quetta, Baluchistan’s capital, on 07/04/2003, initially attributed to another Sunni and anti-Shiite terror organization operating in Pakistan – Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (see – Quetta-Violence). JundAllah continued to carry out numerous attacks in Pakistan-controlled Baluchistan against Shiite targets.  

JundAllah claimed to be fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iranian controlled Balochistan, named by the Shiite Iranian regime – Sistan Province.

The group has been designated as a Terror organization by Iran and Pakistan in 2005, who cooperate in oppressing sectarian Shiaa-Sunni violence and any insurgency in Sistan-Baluchistan. Many believe JundAllah is linked to Al Qaeda which refers to Shiites as infidels (see – Wahhabism).

Iran linked JundAllah to the Iranian People’s Resistance Movement –PRMI, under the leadership of Abdolmalek Rigi which carried out dozens of attacks against high profile Iranian targets, especially government and security officials. PRMI – JundAllah is believed to have 1,000 fighters and claims to have killed 400 Iranian soldiers. No proof of such link has been found by independent sources – yet cooperation between Baloch on the two sides of the Pakistani-Iranian border is most likely .

In a 05/2008 in a telephone interview with Rooz, (Iranian online newspaper), Abdolmalek Rigi defended PRMI’s (JundAllah) 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, Abdolmalek Rigi declared himself an Iranian and Iran as his home. 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.

Iran also claimed, time and again, that PRMI (JundAllah) received support from the USA government in order to destabilize the Iranian regime and as a counterweight to Iran’s interference in Iraq.

According to an April 2007 report by Brian Ross and Christopher Isham of ABC News, the USA 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 Pakistani official sources.

Abdolmalek Rigi was caught in Pakistan near Quetta in early 2007 and handed over to Iran on 06/13/2008 (see – Baluchistan-Rigi). Today (03/2009) JundAllah activity has sharply declined although the organization is still operative.

On Tuesday 02/23/2010, the Iranian state television, al-Alam Channel, said Abdulmalek Rigi had been held in eastern Iran, but gave no more details.

Iranian authorities have arrested Abdulmalek Rigi, the leader of the Sunni Muslim militant group Jundallah, according to reports on state television, on Tuesday 02/23/2010 (see – Rigis Arrest).

* Abdulmalek Rigi was hanged, by the Iranian authorities, in front of families of victims of his insurgency, on Sunday 06/20/2010.

* USA designated, on Wednesday 11/03/2010, Jundallah as a terror organization and froze its financial assets in USA, basically a symbolic move but with certain impact on all money transfers related to the organization.   

* Related topics – 

PROFILE – MUSAAD ARUCHI
12/2008 -SUICIDE BOMBER KILLED 4 IRANIAN SOLDIERS
2004 -ATTEMPT ON GEN. SALIM HAYAT
2005-6 -AHVAZ BOMBINGS
2002-8 -PAKISTAN’S SECTERIAN VIOLENCE   

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