Family of Iran cleric: Revolutionary Guards hid explosives in Hajj pilgrim bags

The family of a prominent late Shiite cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were behind explosives found in the bags of Iranian Hajj pilgrims in 1986.

Montazeri was one of the leaders of the Iranian Revolution in 1979.

His son, Mullah Ahmed Montazeri, spoke out this week in an Iranian TV program called “Khasht Kham” which was discussing the role of Iranian radical Mehdi Hashemi, who smuggled explosives on an airplane headed for Saudi Arabia in 1986.

Mullah Ahmed sought to point out that Hashemi was at that time a senior official in the Revolutionary Guards, and he carried out the terrorist act within this capacity.

Hashemi had become the head of the liberation movements unit in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in 1983 and “by order of Ali Khamenei, the shipment of explosives was packed into the bags of pilgrims in 1986," Mullah Ahmed said.

His statement is based on a letter written by the late Hossein Ali Montazeri to Supreme Leader Khomeini.

Hossein Ali Montazeri wrote: “The Revolutionary Guards made an unacceptable mistake during Hajj and used the bags of 100 Iranian pilgrims, including elderly men and women, without their knowledge. They lost the dignity of Iran and the Iranian revolution in the eyes of Saudi Arabia and during the Hajj season and forced [Iranian official] Mehdi Karroubi to ask King Fahd for a pardon.”

Saudi security forces managed to seize the shipment of explosives in the Iranian pilgrims' luggage before it could do any harm.