Who are the Jaish al-Adl terrorist group, whose bases Iran has destroyed in Pakistan?

The attacks took place in the town of Panjgur close to the border with Iran, Dawn reported. A mosque about 50 km inside the Pakistani border was damaged in the strikes, the AP reported, quoting two unnamed Pakistani security officials.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that the “focal point of this operation was the region known as Kouh-Sabz (green mountain)” in Balochistan, “recognised as one of the largest hubs for the Jeysh al-Dhulm militants”.

Who are the Jaish al-Adl?

Jaish al-Adl, literally the “Army of Justice”, are a Sunni Salafist militant group with bases in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, who are active in the mountainous border regions of Pakistan and Iran. They are one of several Sunni militant separatist groups who claim to be fighting for the independence of the Sistan and Baluchestan (known as Asli Balouchestan) province in the southeastern corner of Iran, bordering Pakistan’s Balochistan province and the Indian Ocean.

The Jaish al-Adl have been launching attacks against Iranian border guards since around 2013, and have claimed to have carried out bombings and kidnapped Iranian border police personnel.

The Tasnim report said that in mid-December, the Jaish al-Adl had “stormed a police station in Sistan and Balouchestan province’s city of Rask, southeast of Iran, which resulted in the martyrdom of 11 Iranian Police forces”.

What are the roots of the Jaish al-Adl?

The Jaish al-Adl are variously considered as being either an offshoot or an avatar of the older Jundallah terrorist organisation based in Pakistan’s Balochistan. The Counter-Terrorism Guide of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) of the United States says Jundallah changed its name to Jaish al-Adl (JAA) in 2012.

The JAA became increasingly visible from around 2013 onward, the same time as Jundallah started to retreat into the shadows. The US State Department had designated Jundallah as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) on November 4, 2010, and amended the designation in 2019 to include the “Jaish al-Adl” name.

According to the DNI’s summary, the Jaish al-Adl was founded by the former Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi in 2002 or 2003. Abdolmalek led the group until 2010, when he was captured and executed by Iran. After Abdolmalek, the group split into several elements, of which JAA became the most active and influential.

“Iran considers JAA to be Jundallah’s successor and the leader of Baluch resistance in Iran. The group’s stated goals are to secure recognition of Baluchi cultural, economic, and political rights from the Iranian government and to spread awareness of the plight of the Baluch people,” the DNI summary says.

Where and how do the JAA operate?

The Sunni militant group, which also calls itself “People’s Resistance of Iran”, is based in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, and operates in the adjoining Baloch-majority areas spread over Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

According to the DNI, the JAA primarily targets Iranian security personnel, but has also attacked Iranian government officials and Shia civilians with “ambushes, assassinations, assaults, hit-and-run raids, kidnappings, and suicide bombings”.

It has weapons including small arms and light weapons, and uses improvised explosive devices (IEDs) such as suicide vests and car bombs. “Its fighters use guerrilla swarm-and-scatter tactics — primarily with small arms and rocket fire — to attack border outposts and transportation convoys,” according to the DNI.

Who is the leader of the JAA, and what kind of attacks has the group carried out?

The DNI website names Abdolrahim Mullahzadeh as the leader of JAA. Not much is known about him or his whereabouts, and no confirmed picture is available.

The DNI lists a few major attacks carried out by the JAA, all in Iran.

(i) October 4, 2022: Police stations, banks, and stores attacked in Sistan-Baluchestan province; 19 people killed, at least 20 injured.

(ii) February 13, 2019: JAA detonated a suicide car bomb that blew up a bus carrying Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel in Sistan-Baluchestan, killing 27 and wounding 18 people.

(iii) December 15, 2010: A Jundallah suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in Iran’s Chabahar port, killing 40 civilians and wounding nearly 100.

(iv) October 18, 2009: A Jundallah suicide bomber killed more than 40 in a market place in Pishin, Iran.

(v) May 28, 2009: A Jundallah suicide bomber attacked the Grand Mosque in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province, killing 30 worshippers and injuring 300.

What is the history of Baloch resistance in Iran?

The Baloch people are an ethnic group spread across the Pakistani province of Balochistan and Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province. They speak the Balochi language, and boast of a unique cultural identity, different from ethnic Persians in Iran or Pashtun, Sindhi and Pakistani people of Pakistan.

Currently, there are about seven million Baloch people living in Pakistan, while roughly two million Balochis live in Iran. This makes them a minority group in both the countries, and a highly marginalised one at that.

Specifically in Iran, the largely Sunni Baloch minority has faced religious persecution by the Shia state, especially after the Revolution of 1979. Moreover, Sistan and Baluchestan remains among the poorest regions of the country. Anti-Iran Baloch militants have long operated from safe havens in Pakistan, working in tandem with Pakistani Balochi insurgents. 

While both countries have cooperated in dealing with Baloch insurgents in the past, the issue has remained a flashpoint in Iran-Pakistan relations, with either country accusing the other of fomenting tensions on its soil.