By Shoshana Bryen
WASHINGTON, D.C. –Thursday, July 15, was designated “Revolutionary Guard Day” by the Iranian government. The same day, two bombs exploded in a mosque in the city of Zahedan, in southeastern Iran. According to Iranian reports, two suicide bombers entered the mosque and detonated themselves, killing 30 and injuring more than 100 people. The “People’s Resistance Movement of Iran” (PRMI or Jundallah) said the bombing was “retaliation.”
For what? In February, JINSA noted, “a Kyrgyzstan Airways commercial flight from Dubai bound for Bishkek was ordered by the Iranian government to land in Iran and a passenger, Abdolmalik Rigi, was taken off in handcuffs.” (JINSA Report #966) The lack of international interest in the forced landing and rendition of Rigi by Iran would have been mind-boggling except that it wasn’t done by Israel.
On June 20, Rigi was hanged in the Evin Prison in Teheran. IRNA, the Iranian news agency, said the execution was “carried out following a decision of the Tehran revolutionary tribunal” and quoted a court statement saying: “The head of the armed counter-revolutionary group in the east of the country…was responsible for armed robbery, assassination attempts, armed attacks on the army and police and on ordinary people, and murder.” His execution was called a “severe blow” to Jundullah.
Rigi’s brother Abdolhamid Rigi was executed one month earlier in Zahedan. The sentence was carried out in private, Iranian sources said, but with his family in attendance, presumably to ensure their future quiescence. The explosion in the mosque is an indication that at least some people were not cowed. The bombers, according to a Jundallah statement, were Mohammad and Abdolbaaset Rigi
It is unnecessary to know anything about the Jundallah organization to understand that the Iranian regime is secretly executing its enemies and is reaping the revenge.
*
Bryen is senior director of security policy of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.