The 360th Night of Memory – 2

Compiled by: Leila Rostami
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2024-12-16

Note: The 360th Night of Memory, titled "Memorial of Strange Martyrs in Captivity," was held in memory of 12 strange martyrs from Tehran Province on September 22^nd of 2204, in the Soura Hall of the Islamic Revolution Art Center. In this program, Colonel Mojtaba Jafari, Mohammad Javad Zomordian, and Engineer Saeed Ohadi shared their memories. The performance of this Night of Remembrance was led by Davood Salehi.

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The second narrator of the program, Mohammad Javad Zomordian, was born on April 27, 1960. He was the eldest child in a family where both parents were deaf and had difficulty managing life with 4 children. At that time, he, who was 16 years old, went to the front and was captured in the Karbala 4 operation along with 60 other divers. He was in captivity for 4 years and today he is the secretary of the “National Congress of Strange Martyrs in Captivity.” In this program, he tells the story of the formation of this congress and the number of unknown martyrs in captivity.

At the beginning of his speech, the narrator said: The day we started this work, we did not think that we would reach 1902 martyrs today. Among them, the bodies of 83 martyrs have not yet returned to the country. Nine martyrs do not have photos, and among these martyrs, 4 martyrs were welfare children who were captured and later martyred in captivity.

On a piece from the Kayhan newspaper of July 2002: 475 loving swallows returned to their homeland. Many of us, the freedmen, remembered our freed comrades and were looking for those names; but like now, there was no cyberspace where, like dear Mr. Mohsen Hojaji, that event could be narrated immediately from the moment he was captured. There were 475 names and surnames, and not even their photos. Our friends at the Freedmen's Message Institute and the Missing Persons Search Committee helped us turn that scrap of newspaper and those names into faces that we had an image of in our minds during captivity.

We set aside time once a week, from city to city, to search for 475 people. In the 98 trips we made, the number of 475 martyrs increased to 777. A mother said, "I also have this film," another said, "I also have this letter from the Red Cross," and a captive said, "So-and-so was with me." This was also a divine providence.

The narrator continued: "It has been about 4 years since we made 172 trips. We have 95 more to go, and now we are in the presence of 12 strange martyrs from the cities of Tehran province. Fifteen months ago, there were 3 of these martyrs; but today their number has reached 12. Forty martyrs in the structure of the Martyr Foundation and Veterans Affairs belong to Greater Tehran and 12 martyrs belong to the cities.

There is a photo that I will never forget. On the chest label of the brother of the martyred captive, it was written Rasoul Alaei. We were looking for Mr. Rasoul Alaei for three years and we could not find him. Do you know why? Because he was a Basij intelligence-operations officer and had changed his details in captivity. We knew he was from Tehran; but we could not find him. When we found him, we realized that wow! Mr. Rasoul had changed his details and today, to our disbelief, we cannot find any of his family, let alone ask Mr. Rasoul's comrades what happened? Why did he change his name and details and how did he become a martyr?

He continued: Ali Akbar Ghasemi, the wireless operator, was one of the commanders of the 32nd Ansar al-Hussein Division. He was about 31 years old. He had 4 daughters and 1 son. His job was a tailor. When the Imam said that we should be sent to the fronts, he entered the battle fronts of truth against falsehood. 24 hours had passed since his captivity. The telephone man are very visible. I unconsciously caught his eye. Our hands were tied behind our backs and we were sitting on the ground with our knees bent. They had set a large distance between us so that we would be very visible. There were 60 of us prisoners who should have been very visible. The cameras of the reporters were constantly recording our images. The helicopters of the enemy commanders and generals were sitting on the ground near us and filming this scene. They would come, inspect and leave. It was a psychological operation. About 24 hours had passed since thirst had bothered us a lot. I said thirst! I remembered that of these 1902 martyrs, only 153 were seen by the Red Cross and their information was transferred to the sacred system of the Islamic Republic. Some of the Red Cross reports on the manner of martyrdom are unbelievable. The cause of martyrdom is written as “thirst”, “fractured skull” or “fractured flank bones”. This information reached us unconsciously. The Red Cross was negligent and did not understand what it was giving to you and me. They gave us the document of the martyrdom of our dear martyrs. Our tongues were like a piece of wood from thirst and would not move in our mouths. For 24 hours, the injury, hunger and cold had been bothering us a lot. It was around evening and sunset. Mr. Ghasemi unconsciously looked at General Abdul Rashid. Abdul Rashid stood at his feet and said: “Ask me something.” Mr. Ghasemi said: “Bring me some water.” It really hit me. I was sixteen years old and very thirsty. I said to myself: “I stopped myself, Akbar Ghasemi, the battalion commander, did not stop himself! How bad.” When they brought the water near him, he said, “Open my hands from behind.” The general ordered that they open his hands. He took the water and, still sitting and wounded, performed ablution. He found the direction of the Qibla and stood up to pray. Maher Abdul Rashid is a master of psychological operations. He barely managed to stop Akbar Agha. Hajj Akbar Qasemi was martyred under beatings. Today, his body and grave are in [the shrine of] Chizar.

To be continued...