Word: rigi
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...Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, possibly trading in arms and narcotics. Though there's little clear evidence, analysts suspect Jundallah received support and succor from a web of shadowy sources, including perhaps Saudi, Pakistani, Israeli and even U.S. intelligence agents. "The one consensus among experts on this matter is that Rigi was not his own man. He must have been getting aid from somewhere," says Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani government official and currently a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs...
...past year, the two countries have also stepped up diplomatic visits and military exchanges, including a Feb. 21 meeting held in Quetta - capital of Pakistani Baluchistan - between two senior Iranian and Pakistani army commanders. "It seems quite clear that the Iranians could not have [arrested Rigi] without Pakistani cooperation," says Bokhari. Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, is said to have a highly sophisticated operation in Dubai, where Rigi was picked...
Experts say Jundallah may have served, for a time, as a tool of strategic depth for Islamabad, much in the same way it has allowed the anti-Indian terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban to exist in safe havens in Pakistan. "Rigi was a lever with which to have some leverage with Iran, a check Pakistan could cash in," says Bokhari...
...Islamabad still view as their backyard. The arrest earlier this month of Mullah Abdul Baradar, rumored Taliban deputy commander, by Pakistani authorities in Karachi has been seen as a sign of Islamabad's desire to now dismember some of the terror networks it once helped create. Handing over Rigi may be another gesture of goodwill. "Actions like this ease pressure on India and Iran," says Abbas. "There's now a chance for more cooperation and coordination...
That's welcome news for Washington as it struggles to bring stability to Afghanistan nearly a decade after its invasion. It's less welcome for Rigi, who now sits in an undisclosed location in Iran, at the mercy of Tehran's interrogators...