Iran grounds plane with Rigi holding US-issued passport

Iran’s security officers grounded the plane carrying the ringleader of Jundullah terrorist group Abdolmalek Rigi in one of Iran’s southern ports, informed sources say.

As initial reports indicated that Iran’s most wanted man was captured on a flight en-route to Kyrgyzstan from Dubai, a source talking to Press TV on condition of anonymity confirmed that Rigi and one of his deputies were captured after their plane was brought down by security forces in an airport in the Iranian Persian Gulf city of Bandar Abbas.

Iran’s intelligence minister says the leader of Jundallah terrorist group was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his capture, in possession of a US-issued, forged Afghan passport.

Iran’s Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi said Tuesday that the leader of Jundallah terrorist group was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his capture, in possession of a US-issued, forged Afghan passport.

According to Moslehi, the country’s intelligence apparatus had been tracking Rigi for five months prior to his Tuesday arrest.

The terrorist leader was at a US base in Afghanistan 24 hours before his capture, the minister added showing a photo of Rigi’s presence at the Iranian base taken by Iran’s intelligence officers.

According to the intelligence minister, Rigi also met with NATO military chief in Afghanistan in April 2008 and also had links with some EU member states, as well as visiting such countries.

He noted that Iran received no assistance from regional intelligence services in the capture of Rigi.

Jundullah, which has operated in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchistan and Pakistan’s Baluchistan provinces, has carried out a number of attacks against high profile Iranian targets, especially the government and security officials.

Jundallah is responsible for several terrorist attacks inside Iran. In October, the group claimed responsibility for a bombing that left over 40 people dead in Iran’s southeast.

Jundallah was also behind a blast at a mosque in Zahedan that killed over 20 people in May 2009.

Rigi’s brother Abdolhamid is also in Iran’s custody. He has admitted that Jundallah receives orders from the US to carryout attacks in Iran.

An ABC News report in 2007 reported that the Jundullah terrorist group ‘has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials’ to destabilize the government in Iran.

In another report in July, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that US Congressional leaders secretly agreed to George W. Bush’s $400-million funding request last year for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran.

Observers say that it is through such covert funding that the US arms and finances anti-Iran terrorist groups such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and Jundullah.

Other US intelligence agencies, such as the CIA, have their own secret and separate budgets to fund terrorist and insurgency operations against Iran and other nations that do not submit to America’s will.

The group’s ringleader, Abdolmalek Rigi, has described his terrorist cell as a ‘nationalist movement’ and denied any links to Washington. However, many Baluchis were among the victims of the most recent terrorist attack by Rigi’s followers.