Most Kyrgyzstanis were surprised by the news that on February 23, 2010, a ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, was arrested during the flight from Dubai, bound to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan Airlways’ plane.

The airplane of the Kyrgyzstan Airways was reportedly forced by Iranian Navy fighter planes to land in Bandar-Abbas, Iran, where Rigi was arrested, when he stepped on Iranian soil. Kyrgyzstani were asking questions like “what a leader of notorious Iranian terrorist group would do in Bishkek?” Media was going crazy giving different perspectives on the incident.

However, several days later, Abdolmalek Rigi answered himself why he was heading to Bishkek. According to the interview he give to Press TV, an Iranian TV channel, he was going to Bishkek to meet with a high ranking US official, who, as Rigi believes, would help Jundullah in getting assistance from US in “creating difficulties for the Islamic Republic of Iran.” If Rigi is telling the truth, then a high-profile US official he was to meet was Richard Holbrooke, US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who was in Kyrgyzstan to visit the only US air base in Central Asia.

Below is the interview of Abdolmalek Rigi to Press Tv of Iran:

Journalists at Kloop.kg contacted Kimberly McDonald, Public Affairs Office at the US Embassy in Bishkek, to get US Embassy’s comment on Abdolmalek Rigi’s public statement. McDonald denied any allegations that US supports Iranian terrorist groups saying that it was a mere Iranian propaganda to blame US.