Thaindian News

London, June 24 (ANI): Several demonstarations have taken place in Karachi in Pakistan against Iran for putting Abdolmalek Rigi, head of the Jundullah militant group, under gallows.

Rigi was hanged inside Evin prison on 21st of this month in presence of his family members.

Rigi led Jundallah (soldier of God), the group behind a low-level insurgency in the south-eastern Iranian province where the people are mostly of Baloch ethnicity and belong to the minority Sunni Muslim community.

In 2009, the group took responsibility for two major terrorist attacks in the province. One of these was a suicide bombing in October in Pishin near the Iran-Pakistan border, which killed several top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards.

Four months later, in February 2010, the 26-year-old Rigi was captured from a plane flying from Dubai to Kyrgyzstan.

He was sentenced to death by the Tehran Revolutionary Court, which convicted him of several acts of violence.

Iran has maintained that Jundullah operates out of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, but has the support of Pakistani, US and British intelligence agencies.

“Abdolmalek Rigi’s only fault was that he spoke for the rights of the Baloch,” BBC quoted Abdul Wahab Baloch, leader of the demonstration, as saying.

“Jundullah is a Baloch nationalist organisation - it has wrongly been labeled a sectarian group,” he added.

Nationalist groups in Pakistan have been a thorn in the side of the government for several years. However, this is the first time they had expressed solidarity with secessionist groups in Iran. (ANI)