(RTTNews) - Iran has executed a member of the Sunni rebel group Jundullah at a prison in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, reported Iranian news agencies on Tuesday.

Iranian news agencies quoted senior police officials as saying that Abdolhamid Rigi, a convicted member of the Jundallah terrorist group, was hanged to death on Monday at a prison in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province.

The news reports also indicated that the executed man was not related to Jundullah's leader Abdolmalek Rigi, who has a brother of the same name on death row.
In the recent past, Iranian authorities have blamed the Sunni militant group Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, for carrying out terror attacks in the Sistan-Baluchestan province that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Recently, the Sunni militant group had claimed responsibility for last month's suicide attack in Zahedan, which left at least 42 people dead, including six Revolutionary Guard commanders.

The Sistan-Baluchistan province is home mainly to the Baluchi ethnic minority, who are Sunni Muslims. Some of them oppose Iran's predominately Shiite government, and several militant groups in the region, including the Jundallah, have waged a low-level insurgency against Shiite rule in recent years.

by RTT Staff Writer

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