11 militants hanged in Iran

TEHRAN - Eleven members of the Sunni Muslim militant group Jundollah were hanged Monday in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, the Khabar news network reported.

The inmates were executed at a prison in the provincial capital, Zahedan, for crimes committed in the province over recent years, Khabar said.

Sistan-Baluchistan province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been a target of terrorist attacks in the past, mainly by Jundollah, which claims to be fighting for the rights of Iran’s Sunni minority.

The group claimed responsibility for last week’s suicide bombing at a mosque in Chabahar, a coastal city in the province. It killed 39 people and injured dozens.

The government also accused Jundollah of involvement in drug-trafficking, kidnapping and other bombings in Sistan-Baluchistan and charged Pakistani and Western intelligence services of supporting the group.

Tehran accused the organisation of sowing discord between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Jundollah leader Abdolmalek Rigi was hanged in June in Evin prison in Tehran. Since then, Jundollah has carried out what it described as revenge acts and killed several military officials and civilians.