How Ayatollah Qazi Was Martyred

Faezeh Sasanikhah
Translated by: Zahra Hosseinian

2022-1-25

As soon as I arrived home, my sister started complaining:

You’ve been imprisoned several years and been escaping some years. How were better those years, now that we don’t hear about you at all!

I saw my sister was close to tears. She asked:

- How is he?

I asked in a puzzle:

- How is who?

She wept and replied:

- Don’t you know Ayatollah Qazi was shot?!

I said:

- Probably they’ve rumored again!

But this time rumors were true, and I realized that my sister's tears were telling the incident. I immediately went to Ayatollah Qazi’s house. I saw the door was closed, and the car of the police commander was approaching his house from Artesh Street. I was sure something has happened.

The light of car headlight fell on my face, and they recognized me. I asked:

- Has something happened?

They replied:

- Ayatollah Ghazi was shot here, and he is in the hospital now.

Using a flashlight, we found two bullet shells of the four bullets. Then we got in the police car and went to Sina Hospital. A crowd had gathered in front of the hospital. No one from the people or the committee forces was allowed to go upstairs. I went upstairs and saw that Dr. Milani and Dr. Sarkhani were also there, and Mr. Yekta stood in the middle of the corridor. I saw Ayatollah Qazi in the operating room, whose eye had fallen out of its socket, and he had been martyred on the spot. I burst into tears when they warned me that no one should know about his martyrdom. So, I wiped my tears.

Because his brain had been dissected first, they gave me a bullet that had been taken out from it and said that there is another bullet in his flank. I took it and went down. People asked about him, and I said:

- Thank God, he’s fine and is recovering.

In the meantime, I had inquired and found out that the assailants had fled in a green BMW car. I told people:

The assailant ran away with a green BMW, whose plate number we don’t know. Go to your service areas and stop the green BMW cars. Please have a respectful manner so that the person, who is not the assailant, not be offended.

It was rumored in the city that the Muslim People's Republic Party had martyred Ayatollah Qazi at the behest of Hakami Abadi, which could have made a catastrophe.

I came to Qazi’s children and told them: let’s go! They said they wanted to see their father. But I told them to wait until he is taken to the ward. When we got home, I asked:

- Where is his testament? He’s been martyred!

A commotion broke out. Everyone burst into tears. I told Qazi’s family that no one should notice now because it causes trouble. Finally, his testament was found, and we called his executor who was his brother-in-law, Engineer Tabatabai. As he was sick, he gave the right to administer the testator’s will. He then spoke with one of Qazi’s sons to inform him about my appointment for managing the will.

The Qazi’s testament was opened, and after reading it, we found out that he has not determined where to be buried. It was midnight when I rang the Imam's house. Haj Ahmad picked up the phone. I said that we wanted to consult with the Imam about an issue. He asked what the matter was, and I mentioned the case of Qazi's martyrdom and added that the burial place has not been determined in the will.

Haj Ahmad got very upset, and I realized that he remembered Mostafa's death. He said:

- Imam has been gone for rest. Wait until I phone you two hours later when Imam wakes up for ablution and night prayers.

We began doing house works, and Haj Khanum prepared sugar for the ceremony. It was about two in the morning when the phone rang. I offered my condolences to Imam Khomeini and asked about the burial place. Imam said: "His ancestors have a tomb in Tabriz. Bury him there if possible."

I said if you ordered, we will bury him there. The Imam said: "They are the capital and history of these people. After a long time, young people will be proud of their past by seeing these tombs." I offered my condolences again and said goodbye to Imam Khomeini. Accompanied by an architect named Haj Ayoub, who was from Qareh Aghaj, I quickly sent some people to the tomb to prepare a grave for Qazi. They had dug the grave a little deeper, and a hand had appeared right from the side of the grave, which was perfectly intact. At my request, they prepared the grave with a ten cm wall.

I rang the hospital to take the Qazi’s body by ambulance, in complete secrecy, to Baqaieh Cemetery.

It was 3:00 or 3:30 in the morning when I and Mr. Anzabi, and my brother went to Baqaieh Cemetery. I did his ghusl, and my brother washed him with soap. We had a problem. The blood flowed from his wounds, and the ghusl was disrupted. We laid the body on his side and put a pillow under his head, and the right side of his head, which was the place where the bullets hit, remained high, and the blood flow stopped. I performed his ghusl and told my brother to bring dry plaster. I asked him to put the plaster on the wounds. The water made the plaster go dry and harden, and no more blood came from wounds. Then we performed cedar and camphor ghusl and shrouded Qazi's body.[1]