Memoirs of Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Mohammad Javad Pishvai

A Memory of Mersad Operation

Compiled by: Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2022-8-9

The last trip of our front, after we were stationed in Tehran, was the Mersad operation. At that time, we were teaching at the university when they suddenly informed us of the start of the Mersad operation. Imam Khomeini (PBUH) ordered to go and stop the hypocrites. Because the hypocrites had come as far as Islamabad. The news that reached us, the students of the university, the commanders and professors, along with the staff of Imam Hossein (PBUH) University and the Faculty of Command and Staff set out. In the night, I announced in the mosque that it is the Imam's order and the hypocrites are abusing the position of the resolution and are advancing on the borders of the country. I said that I [Hujjat al-Islam Seyed Mohammad Javad Pishvai] would leave for the front tomorrow; those who wanted to give gifts or money could send them to the front. After my words, a lady brought her necklace. Wow, it was a blessed necklace. A pricey necklace with the money of which we prepared two vans of canned food and juice, prepared foods and bread. In the end, I collected some money and took it with me to the fronts for help. Our people were able to stop the enemy with this kind of struggle, otherwise, no other force could have resisted like this. We walked and went to Kermanshah. When we arrived at the Mersad operation command center, we realized that this front is different from the usual fronts of the past. We saw that the amount of war weapons and their number is increasing every moment.

The late martyr Sayad Shirazi boarded a helicopter to investigate the situation and design an operation plan and monitored the area with a map. The late martyr Major General Sattari and Mr. Shamkhani gave internal orders. The command center of the Mersad operation was somewhere under the mountains of Kermanshah. We were all there. As soon as I arrived, Mr. Shamkhani said, "Sir, when did you come? We do not have an Imam here. This font is also different from the previous fronts and your presence here has a special meaning for us." From the memories of these loved ones before the war, I must say that General Shamkhani, General Aziz Jafari, and General Kothari saw the high period of the war and I was also a teacher of some of the courses of the high period of the war.

Martyr Major General Mansour Sattari also doesn't need to be introduced. We both knew each other perfectly. Because he was aware of my presence in Bandar Anzali and my position there, he accompanied me on that trip as the head of the security team. The story is that it was time for prayer. Everyone said that with your presence, it is better to reach the grace of congregational prayer. But we have one request that you try to pray quickly. After all, we are all commanders and we can be needed at any moment. We also realized the difference between home prayer and market prayer. I said: "Yes, we will perform the prayer as fast as possible in the manner of Ramadan so that you can get to work." Hopefully, the hypocrites were stopped. All the forces present left no stone unturned. Especially the army of Muhammad Rasoolullah (PBUH), the 14th army of Imam Hussein (PBUH) of Isfahan, and the army of Ansar al-Hussein (PBUH) in Hamadan. Many of Hamadani forces were martyred. If these forces had not gone in front of the hypocrites and had not stopped their progress and allowed them to pass through the Chaharzabar pass, they would have entered Kermanshah and perhaps the work would have been over. That is if these would find their way inside the people and inside the alleys and streets, the work would be very difficult and uneven. I was not in the context of the conflicts and I was following the news coming from the front line.

Once I saw General Mohsen Rezaei, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards at the time, came tired and left the line. I said that he, General, should be tired. His anger burst and he cried. I saw Mr. Rezaei crying there. I said that was why he was crying. He said repeatedly that only God, Imam Mahdi (PBUH), because the password of the operation was the name of Imam Mahdi (PBUH), he repeated it under his breath. I said what happened to him so that we would know. The general, who only learned about the story at that time, said: sir, as soon as we accepted the resolution, Saddam, the hypocrites, and the leaders of the anti-revolutionary Kurds held separate and joint meetings with everyone. They have agreed on the partition of Iran. They have said that when Iran accepted the resolution, our hands were left empty of Iran. Tomorrow, when the peace treaty is signed, the lands and cities will become Iran's own. In the meantime, only we were left without a share, and according to my interpretation, the fighters did not let a single thing fall into the hands of the enemy.

After peace was established, they took me along with the university students to the border and conflict areas such as Islamabad, Karand, and Qasr Shirin, where the bodies of our martyrs and hypocrites were on the ground. We also stood on top of a hill facing the mecca and recited the prayer of Imam Hussain (PBUH) in gratitude for this victory. While they were collecting the bodies of martyrs and hypocrites from the ground, we were only looking at their facilities and equipment.

What tanks and well-equipped personnel carriers, what food and facilities, and advanced radars that Saddam gave them all? Even when the pockets and clothes of the killed hypocrites were searched, they found UAE dirhams, Qatari riyals, Kuwaiti dinars, and Saudi riyals. These were not new to me. Because before these events and after they had taken the area of ​​Dasht-e-Abbas out of the hands of the Iraqis in 1982 and the operation of Fateh al-Mubin, which led to the operation of conquering Khorramshahr, known as Baitul-Maqdis, I had a trip there, I saw cartridge boxes on the ground with my own eyes. I saw that the writing on them showed that they were given to Iraq by Saudi Arabia. It turns out that these countries did not see the Iranian revolution from the beginning.

When we returned to the headquarters and I said that I want to go back to Tehran, some of the students of the university also said that we want to go back. A few of them stayed. We prepared to return with some of the comrades with the weapons they had brought from the university.[1]