November 20, 1979, the first day of the 15th century of the Islamic calendar, more than 50,000 Muslims from all over the world were praying the Fajr prayer around the Kaaba inside the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
As soon as the prayer was over, the sound of bullets shattering the peace began to echo in the Grand Mosque. The large doors of the mosque were being closed from the inside, but by then it was too late. By then, more than 600 soldiers had entered the mosque and some soldiers had even climbed the minaret of the mosque.
The holiest site in Islam, where the shedding of blood of any living being is forbidden, had been hijacked, and thousands of people who had come from all over the world to perform the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages were taken prisoner.
Who planned this operation?
How long did it take for such a large number of weapons to arrive, and the biggest question is, what did they ultimately want?
When all the doors of the Kaaba were closed, a voice rang out from the mosque’s loudspeaker. It was the voice of Juhaman al-Otaibi.
Who was Juhaman al-Otaibi?
Juhaman al-Otaibi
Juhaman al-Otaibi was a soldier in the Saudi Arabian National Guard. The Saudi Arabian National Guard is a company whose job is to provide security to the Saudi Royal Families. Juhaman decided to leave his job as a guard and start his own movement.
Juhaman al-Otaibi, due to his attractive personality and engaging speeches, had gathered many followers, ranging from university students to Bedouin tribesmen. He believed that the Saudi royal family had become corrupt. According to him, the rulers of Saudi Arabia had distanced themselves from Islam by joining forces with America and Western countries.
Juhaman al-Otaibi convinced his followers of something that seemed impossible to hear.
That is, in Islam, there are predictions of the coming of Imam Mahdi. According to the hadiths, Imam Mahdi will appear in Mecca between the Kaaba and the Maqam Ibrahim, which is where the Prophet announced that that day had come and Imam Mahdi is present with him inside the Grand Mosque.
That is, in Islam, there are predictions of the coming of Imam Mahdi. According to the hadiths, Imam Mahdi will appear in Mecca between the Kaaba and the Maqam Ibrahim. Juhaman al-Otaibi announced that that day had come and Imam Mahdi was present with him inside the Masjid al-Haram.
Juhaman presented his righteous Abdullah to the world and said that he was Imam Mahdi.
The plan of Juhaman al-Otaibi man was to make the people present in the Kaaba on the first day of the fifteenth century swear allegiance to Imam Mahdi, i.e. Abdullah. This announcement of Juhaman al-Otaibi man created a strange atmosphere inside the mosque. Some people, after hearing his attractive words and considering the past, agreed to swear allegiance to Imam Mahdi, i.e. Abdullah.
While most people were confined around the Kaaba in a state of fear and uncertainty.
Outside the mosque, the Saudi government was facing a crisis for which it was completely unprepared. There were two major reasons for this: the first was the military challenge, as Juhaman al-Otaibi himself had been a guard in the National Military and had been planning this attack for months.
Juhaman al-Otaibi had already stockpiled food and weapons in the basement of the mosque because those people knew the place very well inside.
The second challenge was that a fundamental principle of Islam is that any kind of noise and bloodshed inside the Grand Mosque is strictly forbidden. That is why the Saudi government could not order its army to open fire. To do so, the Saudi government needed to obtain a fatwa from the country’s greatest scholars, and several days passed while waiting for this fatwa.
The world was watching as thousands of people were imprisoned inside the mosque and the Saudi government was helplessly watching over its own holy land. After waiting for several days, the scholars issued a fatwa and, keeping in mind the truth, allowed the use of weapons inside the Grand Mosque.
After this fatwa, the Saudi government ordered its army to liberate the Grand Mosque, but the first few attacks failed miserably because the people of Juhaman al-Otaibi had already taken up their positions inside the mosque, which caused great damage to the Saudi army. When the Saudi government felt that the Saudi government could not resolve this issue on its own, the Saudi government decided to seek international help.
Which country’s commandos liberated the Grand Mosque?
Then the President of the Muslim country of Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq, sent his special force, SSG commandos. Now a new plan was made and this responsibility was carried out well by the Pakistani soldiers.
The biggest challenge was that the basement of the Grand Mosque, where the people of Juhaman al-Otaibi were hiding, finally decided to drill a hole in the ground and fill the basement with gas and water. The aim was to get the people of Juhaman al-Otaibi out of the basement, and most importantly, this plan worked.
Finally, after several hours, the defense of Juhaman al-Otaibi militance was broken and their Mahdi, Abdullah, was killed in the battle. Finally, the leader of this operation, Juhaman al-Otaibi, and 67 of his companions were captured alive. After two weeks of bloody fighting, the Grand Mosque was finally liberated.
Finally, Jaheman and his 67 associates were tried and publicly sentenced to death.
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