Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the Pakistan-based Iranian Sunni rebel group Jundallah, has been captured, Iran's English-language satellite channel Press TV reported Tuesday.

Rigi was reportedly captured on a flight from Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to Kyrgyzstan, Press TV said, without providing any further details.

However, Press TV's website quoted the public relations department of the Iranian Intelligence Ministry as saying that Rigi had been arrested in an operation in eastern Iran.

Jundallah, or Peoples Resistant Movement of Iran, is an insurgent Sunni Islamic organization based in Balochistan of Pakistan that claims to fight for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran.

The group was founded by and had been under the command of Rigi. It has been identified as a terrorist organization by Iran and Pakistan and has been behind numerous acts of terror, kidnapping and smuggling narcotics.

In August, Abdolhamid Rigi, the brother of Abdolmalek Rigi, told reporters in Zahedan, the capital city of Iran's southeastern province of Sistan-Balouchestan, that the United States had a supporting role in launching terrorist plots inside Iran.

"After meeting with the U.S. officials in the U.S. embassy in Pakistan four years ago, they (the U.S. officials) promised to help us with everything we needed," said Abdolhamid Rigi, who had been captured by Pakistani forces and extradited to Iran.

"We were deceived by them (the U.S. officials) ... We received monetary and armed supports from the United States ... We received orders from them" to carry out the terrors inside Iran, he said.