Four died and many others were wounded in an attack on a police station in the southeastern Iran port city recently. Javed Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister on December 6, 2018 tweeted, “Foreign-backed terrorists kill & wound innocents in Chabahar. As we’ve made clear in the past, such crimes won’t go unpunished: In 2010, our security services intercepted & captured extremists en route from UAE. Mark my words: Iran WILL bring terrorists & their masters to justice.”

Later, a group called Ansar al-Fuqran that was created in 2013 with the merger of Hizb-ul-Furqan and Harkat-ul-Ansar Iran accepted the responsibility. It issued a statement claiming the successful attack to be, “a severe blow to the regime’s security forces”. One of the groups merging; the Harkat-ul-Ansar, “is inclined to define its ideology within the sphere of a global Jihad. A HAI spokesperson has called on Balochis to rise up against the Iranian regime with the support of their “Sunni and Wahhabi friends,” which has increasingly become its priority since merging with Hizbul-Furqan to become Ansar Al-Furqan in 2013.”

Ansar al-Fuqran is a designated terrorist organization by Iran. As per Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium (28 March 2014) the banned outfit as links with Jeish Muhammad, Katibat al Asad Al ‘Islamia, Jaish ul-Adl and Al-Nusra Front. 

The Ansar-ul-Furqan members mostly hail from Baluchi Salafist militants opposed to the Iranian regime. 

Is Ansar-al-Furqan part of proxy war against Iran?

Ansar-al-Furqan had claimed terror attack against Iranian government previously as well. This includes IED attack on a freight train belonging to government forces in May 2014. The message is clear: creating upheaval in Iran, toppling the Iran government and to achieve that end; the organization and their sponsors will do anything.

If one looks at the pattern and objectives of these groups certain similarities emerge; first is all these groups are Sunni extremists with an objective to destroy Shi’ite standing and second they must not be viewed independent of war on Iraq and Syria. Together they form a complete circle.

 Jundallah the terrorist organization headed by the Rigi family cannot be overlooked in this ugly scenario. The connections of this organization with US and Israel are well established.

“The memos, as described by the sources, one of whom has read them and another who is intimately familiar with the case, investigated and debunked reports from 2007 and 2008 accusing the CIA, at the direction of the White House, of covertly supporting Jundallah — a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization. Jundallah, according to the U.S. governmentand published reports, is responsible for assassinating Iranian government officials and killing Iranian women and children. But while the memos show that the United States had barred even the most incidental contact with Jundallah, according to both intelligence officers, the same was not true for Israel’s Mossad. The memos also detail CIA field reports saying that Israel’s recruiting activities occurred under the nose of U.S. intelligence officers, most notably in London, the capital of one of Israel’s ostensible allies, where Mossad officers posing as CIA operatives met with Jundallah officials. Israel’s relationship with Jundallah continued to roil the Bush administration until the day it left office, this same intelligence officer noted. Israel’s activities jeopardized the administration’s fragile relationship with Pakistan, which was coming under intense pressure from Iran to crack down on Jundallah. It also undermined U.S. claims that it would never fight terror with terror, and invited attacks in kind on U.S. personnel.” (Mark Perry, Foreign Policy Magazine Jan. 13, 2012)

Bottom Line

If we want world peace before we destroy each other, these games of regional hegemony, hatred, global dominance must stop. These proxy wars must stop!