Tehran — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were behind explosives found in the bags of Iranian Haj pilgrims in 1986, confirmed the family of a prominent late Shiite cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri.

Montazeri was one of the leaders of the Iranian revolution in 1979.

His son Mullah Ahmed Montazeri spoke this week in an Iranian TV program called “Khasht Kham” which was discussing the role of Iranian radical Mehdi Hashemi, who smuggled explosives on an airplane headed for Saudi Arabia in 1986.

Mullah Ahmed said that Hashemi was at that time a senior official in the Revolutionary Guards.

He headed the liberation movements unit in the Revolutionary Guards in 1983 and “by order of Ali Khamenei, the shipment of explosives was packed in the bags of pilgrims in 1986,” Mullah Ahmed said.

His statement is based on a letter written by the late Hossein Ali Montazeri to Khomeini.

Hossein Ali Montazeri wrote: “The Revolutionary Guards made an unacceptable mistake during Haj and used the bags of 100 Iranian pilgrims, including elderly men and women, without their knowledge. They lost the dignity of Iran and the Iranian revolution in the eyes of Saudi Arabia and during the Haj season and forced (Iranian official) Mehdi Karroubi to ask King Fahd for a pardon.”

Saudi security forces managed to seize the shipment of explosives in the Iranian pilgrims’ luggage before it could do any harm. — Al Arabiya English

Revolutionary Guards hid explosives in bags of 100 unsuspecting pilgrims bound for Haj in 1986