Haj Ahmad Metovaslian and a Hat belonged to Public Treasury

Narrator: Mojtaba Askari
Translator: Fazel Shirzad

2023-4-25

The village of Najjar near Paveh had a population of approximately one hundred and fifty sixty people; about 40 families. The first village after Paveh was towards Nowsud and did not have a very strategic military position; but we had to capture it to be able to go to the new direction. In the morning of one of the winter days of 1979, a number of non-native guards and honorary guards of Paveh went to Nausud. The anti-revolution was resisting from within the village of Najjar itself. The children suggested that we hit the village with 106 bullets.

I heard this phrase from Haj Ahmad [Mutovaslian] himself, who said: "No. According to Imam's fatwa, I do not have permission to attack the village with heavy weapons. You hit the houses that are shooting with caliber 50; but if we hit 106, maybe innocent people will get hurt. Not advisable." If he did, he would capture the village within ten minutes. Due to the fact that a good counter-revolutionary had taken refuge in that village, we could not capture the village at that stage. Perhaps one of the reasons was that Ahmed did not allow a violent conflict.

From the morning when we started the operation, it didn't take more than one or two hours to besiege it; but we did not enter the village. The anti-revolutionary had taken shelter inside, and if we carried out severe operations, people would be harmed; But we did tactical and guerilla operations. There, I was shot in my left leg and I was wounded... With the help of the comrades, we went to the shelter. We decided to retreat.

The characteristic of Haj Ahmad was that he would come to check and take a census to see if all the children had returned or not. As he was doing these things, the hat fell off his head. It fell from the hill and forty to fifty meters below, it fell into the valley. Haj Ahmad recognized that if he went and fetched the hat, his life would not be in danger. It was hard work, but he went down and brought the hat. When he came up, the comrades asked, "Why did you go looking for your hat?" He said: "Because it is belonged to Public treasury. It should not be belonged to counter-revolutionists."

Source: The book of standing forever, edited by Fatemeh Vafaizadeh, Iran Publications, 2022.