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UPDATE 1-Iran hangs 11 Sunni rebels, urges Pakistan to act

by (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. Click For Restrictions. http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 20 December 2010 19:37 GMT

* Jundollah claimed Dec. 15 suicide bombs that killed 39

* Iran says rebels take refuge over Pakistan border

* Ahmadinejad urges Pakistan to arrest terrorists

(Updates with Ahmadinejad quote)

By Mitra Amiri

TEHRAN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Iran has hanged 11 people linked to a Sunni rebel group that killed 39 people in a mosque bombing, the Justice Ministry said on Monday.

Iran says the rebels of Jundollah, who say they are fighting for the rights of the ethnic Baluch people, find shelter across Iran's southeastern border with Pakistan.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held a telephone conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari, urging Pakistan to arrest "identified terrorists" and hand them over to Iran, state television reported.

The Justice Ministry said those executed were all supporters of Jundollah, which claimed a double suicide bombing of Shi'ite worshippers in the southeast on Dec. 15. [ID:nHAF562550]

Iran says the group is linked to al Qaeda.

"The people of Sistan-Baluchestan province, in their continuing campaign against the elements of cruelty and insecurity, hanged 11 people at Zahedan prison," the ministry said in a statement on the semi-official Fars news agency.

Iran hoped it had neutralised Jundollah when it executed its leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, in June. But the mosque bombing in the town of Chabahar, which also wounded more than 100 people, was the group's latest riposte.

Jundollah says it is defending the rights of the Baluch people, an ethnic minority group that it says face "genocide".

The families of the bombing victims sent a letter to Zardari calling for "serious measures" against Jundollah and other "terrorist" groups, echoing a call from some Iranian officials.

"These anti-revolutionary groups which have been given shelter in neighbouring countries like Pakistan and are being supported there should be pursued and suppressed on Pakistani soil," said Qolamali Rashid, a senior military official, according to Fars.

"The land forces of the Revolutionary Guard have the ability to do this," he said, referring to Iran's elite military force.

A member of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee said on Sunday that "Pakistan should be served notice" to destroy what he called terrorist training camps.

"If the Pakistan government refused to take measures to destroy the terrorist centres in that country, then the Islamic Republic would have the right to take steps and make the atmosphere unsafe for the terrorists in defence of its own nationals," Kazem Jalali told the semi-official Mehr news agency. (Reporting by Mitra Amiri; writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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