Iran hangs 11 members of militant group Jundallah

TEHRAN (Agencies)

Charged with “corruption on earth, fighting against God

Iran on Monday hanged 11 members of Sunni militant group Jundallah which
claimed last week’s devastating suicide bombing of a Shiite mourning procession, a judiciary official said. “This morning 11 members of those belonging to (Jundallah), who in recent months were involved in terrorist attacks in the province (Sistan-Baluchestan), fighting with police, and martyring several innocent people have been hanged in Zahedan jail,” Ebrahim Hamidi, head of the provincial justice department, told state news agency IRNA. Zahedan is the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan. Jundallah (Army of God) is a shadowy Sunni militant group which has claimed several deadly attacks in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, including a December 15 suicide bombing in the city of Chabahar which killed 39 people and wounded dozens.

On Thursday an Intelligence Ministry official said eight people had been arrested for orchestrating the twin suicide bomb attacks which killed 39 people and wounded dozens.

Hamidi said those hanged were identified and arrested by Iranian security and intelligence forces.

“These corrupt and Mohareb (waging war against God) elements… went through all the legal and religious procedures of receiving a fair and public trial,” he said.

Hamidi said they were charged with “corruption on earth, fighting against God and the Prophet and confronting the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Under Iranian penal code these crimes are punishable by death.

“Thus they were convicted and sentenced to hanging. The sentence was carried out after receiving confirmation from the judiciary,” he added.

Jundallah, whose leader Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged in June, says it is fighting for the rights of the ethnic Sunni Baluchis who make up a significant population in Sistan-Baluchestan.
The deprived province of Sistan-Baluchistan, which shares a border with Pakistan and Afghanistan, has witnessed unrest with the mainly Sunni population claiming discrimination by the Shiite authorities.

Iran says Jundallah has links to Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda and has accused Pakistan, Britain and the United States of supporting the group to stir instability in southeast Iran, home to Iran’s Sunni minority. The three countries deny backing it.

Bombings and clashes involving security forces, ethnic Baluch Sunni insurgents and drug traffickers have increased in recent years in the area.

Iranian leaders reject allegations by Western human rights groups and Jundallah that the Islamic Republic discriminates against ethnic and religious minorities.

Ethnic Baluchs, many with tribal links to their restive kin in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan, make up an estimated one to three percent of Iran’s 77 million people.