Iran, Pakistan, and the Rigi Question
By Reza Hossein Borr
Pakistan fell in a trap that Iran had planted for her when Pakistani government handed over fourteen alleged members of Jundullah. Under pressure by Iran, the Pakistan government extradited Abdul Hamid Rigi, the brother of Abdul Malik Rigi, the leader of Jundullah. The Iranian governments forced Abdul Hamid Rigi to confess and used his forced confessions as true documents. Among different confessions, one is the claim that Abdul Malik Rigi lives in Pakistan under the protection of the security agents. Pakistan has rejected this claim as well as Abdul Malik Rigi. Since then, the Iranian governments have used his confessions as true documents to pressurize Pakistan to give in to its different requests.
The government of Iran claimed that it found a new document which proves that Rigi is in Pakistan. But again, the Iranian officials claimed that the document was based on confessions of Abdul Hamid Rigi who has been extradited to Iran two years ago. It is not clear how Abdul Hamid has found a new document regarding the whereabouts of Abdul Hamid Rigi when he has been in prison for two years.
Jundullah claims that Abdul Hamid Rigi was expelled from Jundullah a long-time ago before he was arrested in Pakistan because of disobedience. The leader of Jundullah claims that his organization is a very disciplined organization and Abdul Hamid could not carry out all the disciplinary procedures that were required of all members and therefore he was expelled. When he was expelled from the group, he began his own military operations against the Iranian regime. On one occasion when he kidnapped a few Iranian officials and transported them to Pakistan, he was arrested. His actions did not have any relationships with Jundullah and its leaders but as the brother of Abdul Malik Rigi, he had some information about his family and his movements. He passed his information to the Iranian regime. After extracting different kinds of confessions that were suitable for the Iranian regime, the government of Iran announced that he has been condemned to death along with thirteen other Baloch. When the executions were carried out, Abdul Hamid was not among them. The Iranian officials announced that he has not been executed because he has been a very important source of information. Before and after that, Abdul Hamid was shown on Iranian televisions and conference halls where he confessed to many crimes that he had allegedly committed or Jundullah had allegedly committed. Among these confessions, was the allegation that Jundullah had relationships with Pakistani intelligence agencies, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United States of America.
Also he alleged that Jundullah had close relationships with Al Qaeda and Taliban. These contradictory confessions showed that Jundullah has been able to acquire the support of many intelligence agencies in many countries at the time that he had close relationships with Al Qaeda and Taliban. Nobody believed them. An organization that has close relationships with Al Qaeda and Taliban logically cannot have any close relationships with the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. Yet, Abdul Hamid Rigi expressed his confessions in many televisions and even some conference halls where Baloch leaders attended. Again nobody believed them.
All these countries rejected the claims as well as Jundullah. Abdul Malik Rigi claimed that his organization and its members are all located in Iran. He also rejected the claims of any kind of connection with these countries, Al Qaeda and Taliban. It seems that there is some truth in what Rigi has claimed as Jundullah changed its tactic from guerrilla war to suicide bombing. He said this tactic allowed his members to live and work in Iran as before and carry out one military operation once every few months. Suicide bombing missions do not need team work and participation of many people at the same time. People can work individually and separately without knowing each other. Using this strategy, it carried out successfully three missions that caused immense embarrassment and casualty to the Iranian government.
Whenever a mission is carried out, Iranian government which is not able to arrest the members of Jundullah in Iran exerts pressure on Pakistan to arrest and extradite Rigi to Iran. Pakistan has always rejected these claims.
The thirteen Baluch that were extradited to Iran were executed in Iran and this was clear from the beginning. According to different conventions and human rights organizations, the extradition of those people who are likely to be hanged or executed is banned and yet, the Pakistani government extradited them to Iran and they were executed.
It must be noted that Iran is extremely skillful in aggressive lobbying and pressuring other countries. Sometimes the scale of lobbying is so much intense that countries like Pakistan cannot bear the weight and give in even if they do not find any member of Jundullah in Pakistan. They can arrest ordinary Baluch people and accuse them of such allegations and extradite them to Iran. And when they get extradited to Iran, the officials extract confessions from them under tortures and use confessions as true documents and accuse Pakistan of harboring terrorism and demand the extradition of more terrorists.
The extradition of Abdul Hamid Rigi and thirteen other innocent Baluch and also the recent arrest and extradition of another Norwegian Baluch has given Iran more tools to embarrass Pakistan. It is not known why Pakistan is generating all these problems for itself.
