ISLAMABAD - The federal government has banned Jundallah, an Iran-based militant organisation, which is allegedly involved in many terrorist attacks on Shia Muslims in the neighbouring country.

A senior officer of the Ministry of Interior confirmed that Jundallah had been added to the list of banned organisations of the Ministry of Interior through a fresh notification.

The government put Jundallah in Schedule One under the Counter Terrorism Act. According to the notification issued by the federal government, Jundallah has been dismissed under the Counter-Terrorism Act 1997, in Schedule One under the Counter-Terrorist Act.

Jundallah, an Arabic name, means “soldiers of God”. The organisation is also known as People’s Resistance Movement of Iran (PRMI).

It is a Sunni militant organisation based in Sistan and Baluchestan, a southeastern region of Iran and claims to be fighting for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran.

Jundallah was founded by Abdolmalek Rigi, who was captured and executed by Iran in 2010.

At that time, Iranian authorities had conveyed their serious reservations to Pakistan claiming that they had found Pakistani computerised national identity card from the possession of Rigi.

The interior ministry had then claimed that the card was fake.

Security officials believe that the militant group had links with Al-Qaeda and some other militant organisations in the region.

Jundallah is designated a terrorist organisation by Iran, New Zealand and the United States for its involvement in many terrorist incidents.