which might signal a revival of the seemingly moribund Jundollah gang.
No group claimed responsibility, but government officials put the blame on the Sunni Baluchi rebel group, Jundollah, saying the cleric had been an advocate of Sunni-Shii unity.
The cleric, Molavi Mostafa Jangi-Zehi, was the appointed Friday Imam of the town of Rask. To be appointed to such a position, he could not be threatening to the regime.
The Fars news agency said Jangi-Zehi had been targeted by Jundollah a year and a half ago. Fars said terrorists burst into his home in August 2010 and locked up his wife and children while looking for cleric. But he was not at home.
Police said Jangi-Zehi was shot dead Friday by two motorcyclists on the Chabahar-Sarbaz road. They said a villager talking with Jangi-Zehi also died.
If Jundollah did kill the clergyman, it showed the group was still active and able to mount attacks. The group remained active for several months after its founder and leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, was captured and executed in 2010. But the last action attributed to Jundollah was the very bloody and dramatic suicide bombing of a mosque in Chabahar December 15, 2010; 39 worshippers died.
There was not a single Jundollah attack announced in 2011. However, last month state media said two members of the Basij were killed in Sistan va Baluchestan province, which might have been a Jundollah action. Certainly, the Basij is a popular target for Jundollah.
State media said two Basijis were killed “defending the security of the people of the region.” It didn’t say where they were killed or under what circumstances. Nor did the news reports quote officials as specifically blaming Jundollah for the killings, though that was widely assumed.
The relative inactivity of Jundollah since the Chabahar bombing has prompted much speculation. Some think Jundollah might be ridden with internal fighting for control of the group since the death of its founder. Others think there is opposition within the group to continued mass killings of innocent people as in the mosque bombing.
If the two murdered Basijis and the cleric shot dead Friday were hit by Jundollah, those would be regime targets and not blind killings like at the Chabahar mosque.