The First Revolutionary Committee in Mashhad

Translated by Ruhollah Golmoradi

2024-1-4

Where was Keramat?

Keramat Mosque was the base in the first days of the revolution. In the sense that all the revolutionary guys gathered and concentrated in Keramat Mosque, and did everything like arresting those accused of collaborating with the previous regime. I was not directly involved in the arrests. Because I was at work in the morning and went to Keramat Mosque in the evening. As I had been in prison for a while, I was entrusted with guarding the arrested. On the top floor of Keramat Mosque, there was a building like an inn with rooms and beds. Because there was no place to keep the arrested accused, we took them to the rooms on the top floor of Keramat Mosque. Of course, there was very weak in terms of security requirements, however, we had no problems in the first week. First, I prepared a notebook and took information about the detainees in each room. From the second week, problems appeared little by little. The mosque was a place for praying, but we had rolled all the carpets on the ground floor and occupied all its rooms. Because of this, there was very little space in Keramat. On the other hand, the number of those arrested was increasing day by day. There was no more space in Keramat Mosque and we had to think differently.

Keramat Mosque had become the first headquarters of the Revolutionary Committee. Almost every day, new people were arrested and brought to the Revolutionary Committee. One of the nights when I was counting prisoners in the rooms, I came to a room where there were several people and I wrote down their names. I saw a person lying on the bed with the blanket over his head. "Who is this?", I asked. They introduced him. I took the blanket off and I knew him. He was the same guard officer and employee of Mashhad SAVAK. I remembered memories of his help for the prisoners. He was very observant and pious. I saw unlike the rest of SAVAK employees lived voluptuously at night, he got up at 12 p.m. to pray. He understood our pain and all the prisoners had a sense of brotherhood towards him. When it was his shift, he would come first, get information from the cells one by one and ask, “What do you need?” Someone said, “I want fruit.” He ordered the soldier, “Take money from him, go and buy some fruit for him.” Or, for example, we asked soap or things that were permitted and we needed, and he would help in preparing them.

I remembered these memories quickly. I went forward and greeted him warmly and said, “Get up, let's go.” He said: “No, let me sleep.” I left my work and immediately went to the room where Mr. Hasheminejad, Tabasi, and Mahami were. I said: “Gentlemen, this man is different from other people. I want to request that you release him right now.” They said, “It is not possible!” I said, “He is different from the others. I myself saw that when we were in prison, he was very kind to the guy.” I turned to Mr. Mahami and said, "Hajji Mahami, do you remember when you went to the public cell, the same man came and changed its light for you?” Hajji Mahami thought a little and said, “Yes, it is true. I remember.” I said, "He gave us everything we needed, didn’t he?” He said, “Yes.” Finally, they accepted my suggestion and said, “You release him at your own risk” and they ordered to release him. I turned to him and said, “Let's go.” He was very embarrassed. I took his things myself and we went out. I introduced him to everyone and said, “He has served us the most in Mashhad’s SAVAK.” It was there that I realized he was an imitator of Imam before the revolution. After that I never saw him again and even forgot his name.

Source: Zarif Karimi, Navid (2020), Oral Memoirs of Mohammad Reza Sherkat Tootunchi, Tehran, Raheyar Publications, pp. 241-243.