Pakistani security forces have detained the ringleader of the Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group as he was traveling by bus in the country’s southwest.
Salam Rigi was arrested near the city of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s Balochistan province, on Saturday morning, security officials said.
Rigi was reportedly taken to an unknown location for questioning.
"We are interrogating the suspect," said Akbar Durrani, the provincial home secretary.
Rigi is the cousin of Abdolmalek Rigi, the ringleader of Jundallah terrorist group, who was arrested by Iranian intelligence forces on February 23, 2010 while he was onboard a flight from the UAE's Dubai to Kyrgyzstan's Bishkek.
After his arrest, the ringleader (pictured below) confessed that Western intelligence agencies supported his terror activities against Iran.
On June 20, 2010, Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged in Tehran upon a ruling issued by Iran’s Islamic Revolution Court. He was charged with 79 counts of various crimes including armed robbery, bombing operations in public places, armed attacks on the army, police personnel, and ordinary civilians, assassination attempts, disrupting regional stability, kidnapping, and murder.
Jaish-ul-Adl terrorist group has claimed responsibility for a number of criminal activities in Pakistan and neighboring Iran in recent years.
On February 6, 2014, the terror group abducted 5 Iranian border guards in the Jakigour region of Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan and took them to Pakistan.
On March 23 last year, the terror group claimed that it had killed one of the hostages named Jamshid Danaeifar.
The other four were freed and reunited with their families two months after their abduction.
On October 25, 2013, Jaish-ul-Adl killed 14 Iranian border guards and wounded six others in the border region near the city of Saravan in Sistan and Baluchestan.
Iran and Pakistan signed a security agreement in February 2013, under which both countries are required to cooperate in preventing and combating organized crime, fighting terrorism and countering the activities that pose a threat to the national security of either country.
MSM/NT/AS