Front PageIran Too, Is Fighting Terrorists On Its Soil
Submitted by K Prabhakar Rao on Thu, 04/26/2007 - 15:29. baluchi iran terrorism
Prof Dr Colonel (Retired) K Prabhakar Rao
Iran is very important and ancient nation with great culture in the Gulf region and was called Persia in earlier days. It has very important neighbors such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq and former southern Soviet States and across the Gulf straits has important Muslim States such as Saudi Arabia and Emirates. It has a common border with Pakistan near Sistan-Baluchestan. With elimination of Saddam Hussein it has emerged as a very strong power in the region and its nuclear program is considered by the world as prelude to making a nuclear weapon. President Mahmoud inejad has already gone on record that he would destroy Israel after acquiring the nuclear bomb (1). This statement has greatly alarmed the entire world particularly west. All is not well within Iran. Dissidence has also grown in Iran after the overthrow of the modern and Western styled regime of Shah Pehalwi I of Iran by the fundamentalist Mullahs in 1979. Many Iranians who were forward thinking and pro Pehalwi left Iran to other countries. It is reported and alleged by Iran that a group known as Jundullah (Army of God), a Sunni militant terrorist organization in terms of Iran and made up of members of the fear-some Baluchi tribe in Pakistan , has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, as it has carried out its deadly operations inside Iran. These actions are seen as the destabilizing tactics of the Western powers particularly USA that is spearheading the world sanctions against the nuclear program of Iran. Jundullah is headed by its youthful and dynamic leader Abd el Malik Regi and is made up of members of the Baluchi tribe and operates out of the Balochistan province in Pakistan, just across the border from Iran. The organization is also believed to be involved in narcotics trafficking across the porous Iranian-Pakistani border which is also the usual past time for the lawless Taliban now hiding in Pakistan and the tribes of Waziristan of Pakistan where no civilized law can be imposed effectively. For making fast buck, these lawless criminalized elements resort to drug pedaling and other illegal activities such as narcotics trade thereby causing great damage to the youth of the world.
Speaker of the Iranian parliament, Gholamali Haddadadel, charged following a report by ABC News in the US that Washington has been covertly and clandestinely aiding, abetting and advising a militant Pakistani Islamist organization that has carried out a series of terrorist attacks against Iranian targets. Haddadadel reportedly told newsmen following a meeting with Pakistani officials in Islamabad, “There is no doubt in our minds that the United States spares no efforts to put pressure on the Islamic Republic of Iran,”. “The best indication of United States support to a particular terrorist group is that one of the leaders of his terrorist group was given the opportunity to speak on VOA [Voice of America] after committing the crime.” According to numerous published reports, this reportedly and allegedly US-backed terrorist group has close links to both Al Qaeda and the Taliban, that are notorious and the principal enemies in Washington’s “global war on terrorism.” Teheran charged that the Bush administration is sponsoring terrorist attacks as a means of ratcheting- up its campaign of aggression against Iran. As per the Iranians, the CIA is also reportedly funding the Iran-based Kurdistan Free Life Party to destabilize the Iranian government. Washington reportedly has come into conflict with the Iraqi regime over the presence in Iraq of some 3,800 expatriate Iranian members of the Mujahedin-e- Khalq, or MEK, which has claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks against Iran. Washington’s covert terror war against Iran is aimed at furthering a goal of “regime change” in Teheran. It is likewise designed to pave the way for a far more direct US military intervention. The Pentagon and CIA have reportedly provided it with protection at a base outside Baghdad and have sponsored its operations inside Iran. It is charged that the covert US links with Jundullah are only part of a broader destabilization campaign being waged by Washington with the aim of fomenting conflict between Iran’s Shia majority and a Sunni minority that accounts for nearly 12 percent of the country’s 70 million people. . Balochis are Sunnis numbering about 1.5 million out of Iran's 70 million predominantly Shi'ite population. The largest component of this Sunni population is made up of Kurds, followed by the Baluch and then the Turkoman, based in the northeast (2). The aspect of cross border terrorism was discussed with Pakistan President by Gholamali Haddadadel, Seaker of Iranian parliament. He said, “Some of the militants...are active in our border areas and we should work with Pakistan in order to increase security cooperation,” he said. “There is no news, no evidence, and we don’t have any reason to believe that the military establishment in Pakistan is also supporting such militant groups”. Thus Iran did not charge that Pakistan was directly sponsoring terrorism in Iran (www.wsw.org). Obviously Iran does not want to antagonize Pakistan who is an important neighbor in the region and also a supplier of nuclear know how (Cladestinely).
Jundullah’s attacks have centered on the Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan. In February this year, Jundullah’s terrorists carried out a car bomb attack on a bus in the Iranian city of Zehedan, killing at least 11 Iranians, most of them apparently members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Another 31 people were wounded in the blast. Other important attacks included a May 2006 bombing of a motorcade, in which 20 were killed. The group has also filmed the beheadings of captured Iranian soldiers and officials. Balochs are Sunnis numbering about 1.5 million out of Iran's 70 million predominantly Shi'ite population as discussed earlier (3). Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi alleged that in the recent past, US intelligence operatives in Afghanistan had been meeting and coordinating with Iranian militants, apart from encouraging the smuggling of drugs into Iran from Afghanistan. He said the US agents were working to create Shi'ite-Sunni strife within Iran.
Indeed, Tehran is used to the US stratagem. Sponsoring terrorist activities inside Iran has been a consistent feature of US regional policy over the past quarter-century. Tehran seems to have anticipated the current wave. Last May, in a nationwide television address, President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad accused Iran's "enemies" of stoking the fires of ethnic tensions within Iran. He vowed that the Iranian nation would "destroy the enemy plots".
John Bradley, an author on the Persian Gulf, has written in the current issue of the Washington Quarterly magazine that Balochistan province is "particularly crucial for Iran's national security as it borders Sunni Pakistan and US-occupied Afghanistan ... In fact, the Sunni Balochi resistance could prove valuable to Western intelligence agencies with an interest in destabilizing the hardline regime in Tehran."
Bradley added, "The United States maintained close contacts with the Balochis till 2001, at which point it withdrew support when Tehran promised to repatriate any US airmen who had to land in Iran as a result of damage sustained in combat operations in Afghanistan. These contacts could be revived to sow turmoil in Iran's southeastern province and work against the ruling regime."
Bradley revealed that US policymakers are taking a great interest lately in Iran's internal ethnic politics, "focusing on their possible impact on the Iranian regime's long-term stability as well as comprehensive rethink of strategy aimed at addressing the problems of weak political institutions, bad governance, corruption, warlordism, poor construction, drug trafficking and attendant mafia, and excesses by the coalition forces, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) couldn't possibly hope to get anywhere near on top of the crisis in Afghanistan (4). On the other front The Pakistani army is reported to getting worked- up and jittery with Jundullah's cross-border raids into Iran and has been trying for several months to push the group Jundullah to move its activities to Afghanistan. This group also has a base in Afghanistan.
Thus Iran is not peaceful. The President is preparing the nation for a head on collision with the only super power of the world on the nuclear issue and has called Iranians to be prepared for martyrdom in the fight against the Americans. He has already claimed that the day of destruction of the world is close by meaning the nuclear confrontation in the world over the issue of Iran and Israel. Although every one prays for peace talks and a solution for the Iran crisis, war is not ruled out and is lurking around the corner. President Mahmoud inejad is viewd as a potential transformation into the garb of Adolph Hitler who killed millions of Jews with his fascist thoughts and rule. A regime change by throwing out Mullahs in Iran is more vigorously sought by the Western powers than a war that is a last resort. The actions of Jundullah militant organization from Pakistan borders and sectarian conflicts and rise probably is also a step in this direction to bleed Iran continuously and create problems to it. Iran also has been doing similar actions by interfering in Iraq where USA is trying to establish order and democracy. Thus, Iran is also getting the taste of Terrorism which is also being sponsored by it in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine borders with Israel. There is a popular saying, “as you sow so you reap”. Iran has to pay for its actions in abetting terrorism in Iraq and against Israel and USA.
Bibliography
1. Sheikh Mohammed Mahmoud Siam, Palestine movement is on the true line of Islamic Jihad, Submitted by Correspondent, Radiance Views weekly, and Published by Board of Islamic publications, New Delhi, India, Volume XL, No 28, Dated 27 Nov- 3 Dec 2005, and PP14
2. Alexis Debat, Crackdown on the Secret War against Iran, April 13, 2007 2:20 PMi
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:hDQDWEEoX_sJ:blogs.abcnews.com
3. Bill Van Auken, Iran charges Washington with sponsoring terrorist attacks, 6 April 2007, world Socialist website, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:ypU-XhVnU7sJ:www.wsws.org
4. M K Bhadrakumar, Foreign Devils in the Iranian mountains, www. Asia Times.com, http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:ssQSkzd3nacJ:www.atimes.com
/atimes/Middle_East/IB24Ak01.html+Irans+internal+enemies&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=11
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