Captured in Pakistan: Iran seeks custody of fugitive Rigi

He is the brother of Jundollah leader who was executed by Iran in 2011.

QUETTA: Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli announced on Wednesday, as reported by FARS news agency in Tehran, that Tehran is opting for legal procedures to extradite terrorist leader Abdo-Sattar Rigi, who is the brother of Abdolmalek Rigi, who led the Jundollah terrorist group and was arrested and executed by Iran in early 2011, from Pakistan.

“We have asked the foreign ministry to pursue the issue and extradite this person to Iran,” Fazli said. “Based on the laws, Pakistan should also cooperate with us in the extradition of this person,” he added.

In relevant remarks today, Iran’s Interpol Chief Brigadier General Massoud Rezvani confirmed the news that Sattar was arrested in Pakistan, and said that Iran had been chasing him for five years.

“Based on our information, he is (Abdolmalek) Rigi’s cousin, and a red alert was issued for him based on the evidence that we provided to the Interpol,” Rezvani said, and continued, “The documents for his extradition have been presented”.



Iranian security officials disclosed on Monday that the brother of Abdolmalek was arrested in Pakistan, while Islamabad sources had declared on Sunday that Pakistan had arrested Abdolmalek’s cousin, Salam Rigi who led the Jaish al-Adl terrorist group.

“Based on our information, one of the two captured terrorists is Sattar Rigi, brother of Abdolmalek Rigi,” Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Hossein Zolfaqari said on Monday.

He noted that Sattar Rigi has conducted many terrorist operations in the border regions in Southeastern Iran.

On Saturday, Pakistani sources told the country’s media that authorities in Southwestern Pakistan had arrested the ringleader of Jaish al-Adl terrorist group as he was travelling on a bus from the border area.

Salam Rigi, cousin of the Jundollah terrorist group’s ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi, was seized by Pakistani authorities who were tipped off about his movements and intercepted the bus some 50 km from Quetta, a security official said on the condition of anonymity.

Salam Rigi is accused of involvement in suicide bombings in Iran and Pakistan, as well as sending terrorists to the conflict zones in Iraq and Syria.

Other sources said Sattar Rigi (Abdolmalek’s brother) was carrying his cousin’s ID card at the time of arrest, but further investigations have revealed his true identity as stated by the Iranian deputy minister.

But later reports proved that the captured terrorist was Abdo-Sattar Rigi.

Salam leads Jaish al-Adl, while his cousin Sattar heads the Jaish al-Nasr terrorist group.

Sattar’s two older brothers, Abdolmalek and Abdolhamid Rigi, who led a more powerful terrorist group, Jundollah, were both captured and condemned to death by Iran earlier.

In early 2009, Abdolhamid Rigi, the Jundullah terrorist group’s number two man and brother of its ringleader Abdolmalek Rigi, was arrested by Iranian security forces.

Abdolhamid had conducted a number of bombing operations and other violent attacks in Iran resulting in many casualties and was sentenced to death by the court in 2009, but his execution was delayed on several occasions. Officials did not mention any specific reason for the delayed execution of Abdolhamid at the time.

Iran arrested Abdolmalek Rigi, the number one man of the Jundollah terrorist group in late February 2011. Abdolmalek was executed in June 2011.

After Iran captured most Jundollah members and disbanded the terrorist group, the remaining militants created Jaish al-Adl and conducted several terrorist operations in Iran during the last two years.

In its latest terrorist operation in Iran, Jaish al-Adl abducted five Iranian border guards in Jiki Gwur region of Sistan and Balouchestan province and took them to Pakistan in 2014. After two months of abduction, four of them were released and the terrorist group claimed that it had killed one of them.

In another case, 14 Iranian border guards were killed and six more were injured during the terrorist attack by outlaws affiliated to Jaish al-Adl in Saravan border region in October 2013.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2015.