Jundallah (), also known as the People's Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI)Not to be confused with People's Mujahedin of Iran., was a Sunni Deobandi militant organization based in Sistan and Baluchestan, a province in southeast Iran. The group shared its name with another Baloch group, Pakistan's Jundallah, which was active in Pakistani Balochistan as part of the same insurgency, the Insurgency in Balochistan. Iran's Jundallah claimed to have been fighting for the "equal rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran".
The organization was founded in 2003 by Abdolmalek Rigi, an ethnic Balochi. Rigi was captured and executed at Evin Prison in Tehran in 2010. It was believed to have between 700 and 2,000 fighters however stated by Abdolmalek Rigi, they (Jundallah) only had an active force of 200. Jundallah commanders claim the group had killed up to 400 Iranian soldiers.
Jundallah had been officially designated as a terrorist organization by Iran, Japan, New Zealand and the United States. The U.S. Department of State said that, "Jundallah, which was designated as an FTO and SDGT in 2010, began using the new name Jaysh al-Adl and associated aliases in 2012." It has been linked to and taken credit for numerous acts of terror, kidnappings and the smuggling of narcotics. According to many sources, the group was linked to Al-Qaeda.
Background Jundallah was thought to have begun in 2003 and it is known for attacks against high-profile Iranian targets, both military and civilian. Its origin and structure remain unclear. It had been suggested that it might be an offshoot of Baluchi Autonomist Movement, which was created and supported by Saddam Hussein along with other militant groups like Mujahideen-e Khalq, to wage a proxy war on Iran during the Iran–Iraq War.Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases By Alex Peter Schmid, Albert J. Jongman, pp. 582–584 There appears to be at least another militant organization with the name of Jundallah operating independently in Pakistan.
Iran accuses the United States and other foreign elements of backing Jundallah, possibly from Pakistani territory with Islamabad's support, despite Pakistan's alleged history of cooperation with Iran to suppress trans-border militants, whereas Jundallah denies any connections to al-Qaeda or the Taliban, as well as foreign governments such as the United States and Great Britain. The United States also denies any support or involvement with this group.
In an 17 October 2008 interview aired on Al-Arabiya TV, its leader Abdolmalek Rigi stated the group had given "over 2,000 men" military, political and ideological training but that the number of its members "in the mountains does not exceed 200." It had also been alleged that Jundallah is involved in smuggling Iranian diesel fuel to Afghanistan and Pakistan, the price of which is more than five times cheaper than the diesel fuel in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The diesel fuel is then bartered with opium, which is smuggled into Iran from Afghanistan and Pakistan to be sold in Iran.
Terrorist designation Though the United States State Department under Hillary Clinton considered designating Jundullah as a terrorist organization in 2009, it wasn't until 3 November 2010, that it designated Jundallah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, noting that Jundallah "had engaged in numerous attacks resulting in the death and maiming of scores of Iranian civilians and government officials. Jundallah uses a variety of terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings, ambushes, kidnappings and targeted assassinations." Iran hailed the decision.
Views and goals Jundullah have been referred to as separatists by various media, and Iranian leaders have stated that Jundullah is proxy group used by the enemies of Iran to destabilise the Islamic Republic. The group's (now dead) leader Abdolmalek Rigi, however, always denied the organization had any separatist agenda, or foreign links, claiming that they "merely fight for equal rights for Sunni Muslims" in predominantly Shi'a Iran.
In an interview with Rooz (an Iranian online newspaper), Rigi declared himself an Iranian and stating Iran was his home, and that he merely aimed at improving the lives of Sunni Baluchis in a democratic Iran. Dan Rather's US cable channel HDnet's television news magazine Dan Rather Reports, also interviewed Rigi and showed a video of Rigi personally cutting off his brother in-law Shahab Mansouri's head. In the same interview, Rigi described himself as "an Iranian" and denied that his goal is to form a separate Baluch state. He claimed that his goal is to "improve conditions for ethnic Baluchis", and that his group is "fighting exclusively for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran".
In an 17 October 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, Insha Allah."
International sponsorship United States and Israel
A report by Brian Ross and Christopher Isham of ABC News in April 2007 alleged that Jundallah "had been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials" to destabilize the government in Iran, citing U.S. and Pakistani tribal and intelligence sources. The report alleges that U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney discussed the activity of the group against Iran during his visit to Pakistan. In a blog, the network stated that the support was believed to have started in 2005 and been arranged so that the U.S. provided no direct funding to the group, which would require congressional oversight and attract media attention, drawing parallels between American support for Jundallah and U.S. involvement in Nicaragua.
The report was denied by Pakistan official sources, but ABC stood by their claim despite the denial. Alexis Debat, one of the sources quoted by Ross and Isham in their report alleging U.S. support for the Jundullah, resigned from ABC News in June 2007, after ABC officials claimed that he faked several interviews while working for the company.Howard Kurtz, Consultant Probed in Bogus Interview , The Washington Post, 13 September 2007 Ross went on to say the Jundullah story had many sources, adding, "We’re only worried about the things Debat supplied, not about the substance of that story." According to Ross, ABC had found nothing that would undermine the stories Mr. Debat worked on. However, he acknowledged that as the stories of fabrications continue to roll in, the network "at some point had to question whether anything he said can be believed."; this caused the network, in 2007, to send a second team of producers to Pakistan investigating the original reports.
Gholamali Haddadadel, Iranian parliament speaker in 2007, told reporters that Jundallah is part of pressure tactics used by United States to subdue Iran, and hoped with Pakistani help, Iran would be able to defeat Jundallah.
On 2 April 2007, Abdolmalek Rigi appeared on the Persian service of Voice of America, the official broadcasting service of the United States government, which identified Rigi as "the leader of popular Iranian resistance movement" and used the title of "Doctor" with his name. This incidence resulted in public condemnation by the Iranian-American community in the U.S., many of whom are opponents of the Iranian government, as well as Jundallah.
Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed another report in July 2008 that alleged that US congressional leaders had secretly agreed to former president George W. Bush's US$400 million funding request, which gives the US a free hand in arming and funding terrorist groups such as Jundullah militants.
Three days after the 2009 terror attack against Zahidan mosque, Iranian speaker of parliament Ali Larijani claimed, that Iran had intelligence reports regarding the United States links with certain terrorist groups operating against Iran and accused the United States of commanding them. He also said that the United States is trying to start a civil war between Shia and Sunni segments of Iranian society. Regarding the investigation of the terrorist act he added that Iran would want Pakistan to cooperate fully and not become a mere part of the designs against Iran.
According to a 2007 article in The Daily Telegraph, Jundallah is just one part of a Black Operation Plan involving psychological operations and other covert operations to support dissents among minorities (Baloch, Arab, Kurds, Azeris, etc.) in Iran, which along with tactics of military posturing, risky maneuvers and occasional conciliatory gestures are designed to improve United States bargaining position in any future negotiation with Iran. Furthermore, these Black Operations build upon a coordinated campaign consisting of disinformation, placement of negative newspaper articles, propaganda broadcasts, the manipulation of Iran's monetary currency and international banking transactions.
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi had said United States intelligence operatives have been meeting and coordinating with Anti-Iranian militants in Afghanistan as well as encouraging drug smuggling into Iran. A former Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army General Aslam Beg had accused the Coalition Forces in Afghanistan of training and supporting Jundallah against Iran.
After Rigi was arrested on 23 February 2010, Iran's intelligence minister Heydar Moslehi at a press conference in Tehran claimed that Rigi had been at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his arrest. At a press conference, he flourished a photograph which he said showed Rigi outside the base with two other men, though he gave no details of where the base was, or how or when the photograph was obtained. Photographs were also shown of an Afghan passport and identity card said to have been given by the Americans to Rigi. Moslehi also alleged that Rigi had met the then NATO secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, in Afghanistan in 2008, and had visited European countries. He said agents had tracked Rigi's movements for five months, calling his arrest "a great defeat for the US and UK". On 25 February Iranian state television broadcast a statement by Rigi stating he had had American support and that
"The Americans said Iran was going its own way and they said our problem at the present is Iran… not al-Qaeda and not the Taliban, but the main problem is Iran. We don't have a military plan against Iran. Attacking Iran is very difficult for us (the US). They [Americans] promised to help us and they said that they would co-operate with us, free our prisoners and would give us [Jundullah] military equipment, bombs, machine guns, and they would give us a base."
BBC News carried a report on the statements, noting that "It is not possible to say whether Abdolmalek Rigi made the statement freely or under duress." The US had denied having links with Rigi's group, Jundullah. Reuters also reported that Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, dismissed claims by the Iranian government that Mr. Rigi had been at an American military base just before his arrest. Morrell called the accusations of American involvement "nothing more than Iranian propaganda." According to a former U.S. intelligence officer, Rigi was captured by Pakistani officials and delivered to Iran with U.S. support: "It doesn't matter what they say. They know the truth."
On 3 November 2010, the U.S. Department of State officially designated Jundallah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, thereby making it a crime for any person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide material support or resources to Jundallah.