After separation from MKO and moving my furniture to Mo’ezzossultan Street, one day I was walking aimlessly in the street. I decided to go and visit Haj Sadegh Eslami. After greetings, I reported all my visits and whatever that had happened to me during that last few days. I expressed my sorrow about the separation MKO imposed on my wife and me. He said: “The comrades in in Coalition Councils advised me to take care of you. So, call Haj Mohsen Rafiqdoost[1] tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock and tell him that I have ordered you to go there and get the luggage there. Then he would tell you what to do. Go and be relaxed.”
The next day I called him on time and told him what Haj Sadegh had told me to tell him. Mr. Rafiqdoust asked: “Where are you now?” I said: “I am not so far.” He said: “Can you come to my shop at 10?” I said: “Yes.” It was ten in the morning but he was so busy. I went to the small room in the back of the shop. It was a resting room for the workers and drivers.
When he was free of the work, he came to me and I narrated the story of “Ideology Change” in MKO and my opposition to it. He gave me a phone number and said: “Tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock call Haj Ali Heydari[2] and tell him I have introduced you to buy some goods.” I did what they advised me step by step. When I called Haj Ali Heydari (The greengrocer) I told him: “Haj Mohsen Rafiqdoost had introduced you to sell some orange packages.” He asked: “How many packages do you want?” I said: “Five.” He said: “Come tomorrow morning at 11 o’clock and take it.”
These comings and goings at that time were really bothering but because the heavy security atmosphere of that time they were essential.
I went to Haj Ali’s shop the next morning and told him what had passed to me. He said: “Now you should cut your contacts with Haj Mohsen and keep in touch with me. Whenever you called you should say that you need fruits.” Then he gave me his home phone number too. This way, during the next few days I made several visits with him and reported the latest news that I had.
One day, Haj Ali told me that he wanted to take me to an important visit and get me acquainted with a new figure. We went together to a building in Ghiyasi Street. It was an old building and had a big yard with several rooms around. There seemed to be holding a funeral ceremony for somebody in one or two rooms. The yard was full of people. Haj Ali showed me the basement stairs in a corner and told me that we had to go there. Everything was full of ambiguity. I followed Haj Ali and we entered a room in the basement. There was a Korsi[3] in the middle of the room and a man with a black skullcap was sitting behind it. We said hello and he stood up and answered our greetings and we shook hands. Haj Ali said: “He is the so-called Ahmad.” And he said: “Ahmad, I know you; do you know me?” I said: “You look familiar to me but I do not remember where I had seen you.” He said: “You would not know even if you had seen me, because I have been hiding for a long time; have you heard Andarzgou?” I got happy a lot at once and told him happily: “Haj Agha! Is it you?!” Then we hugged each other. Visiting him calmed me in a way that I forgot lot of my pains. When he was talking it was like he was reinforcing me and feeding my soul.[4]
During the very first meeting I explained all the betraying events I had passed behind. By his reactions and words, I found out that he was more informed than me. I told him: “Right now, I am totally separated from MKO and I am in danger of MKO and SAVAK together. I would possibly be arrested or assassinated. The late Andarzgou[5] said: “Ahmad! Do not worry. Trust God and stay with him. Agha (Imam Khomeini) is aware of all these events.” I said: “Haj Agha! This is foal that is taken up on the roof by us and now when it has become a donkey we do not know how to bring it down. They are colorful snakes grown in our home!”
Haj Agha asked: “Don’t you have any contacts with MKO right now?” I said: “Coordinated with the comrades (Eslami, Rafighdoost and Heydari), I still have some rendezvous and contacts with Mohsen Tarighat and get some information from him.” I explained that Farhad Safa and Mohsen Tarighat had created a religious branch. The late Andarzgou said: “Take care! Do not go on the rendezvous anymore. This time if go there, they would kill you. Suggest them to come out of MKO to cooperate with each other. If they really do it, we would help them too. Whatever arms you need, we would afford.” I said: “Haj Agha! I do not have any arms to defend myself except two cyanide capsules.” Suddenly the late Andarzgou took out a gun, loaded it and triggered. Hearing the sound of trigger, I jumped up. Haj Agha said: “Don’t be afraid. It’s nothing. Trust in God. I have divined by Koran to accept you or not. It was good. It will end well, so do not be afraid. Do not brood. Nothing will happen to you.” Of course, I was not afraid. I was just shocked by hearing the sudden sound of gun. By it was good because I could hear those nice words by him.
The late Andarzgou really believed in divining by Koran. He would do most of his affairs by divining. For the next appointments that I had with him, he would come for some and not for some others and when I would ask him why he did not come he would answer it had been because of divining.
On the first visit, Andarzgou gave me a Colt Pistol 7.65mm with two cartridge clips. He insisted do not get involved in collide or using that gun as much as possible.
After that meeting I made close relation with the late Andarzgou. My contacts with him were different with others. I did not even need every eight hours contact or signaling my health. He would say for example ten days from now to be in a place at some hour. He did not even specify any particular place; he would only tell me enter form north and get out from south and do not think about anything else. Sometimes, I would think that he was not coming but few days later he would report my presence in full detail.
Sometimes I would call Haj Ali Heydari and tell him that I wanted some fruits. And he would tell me: “I would put it away for you, come and take it.” So, this way I would be informed of the place and time of meetings with Andarzgou. It never happened for me to visit him once in one of those appointments. We would always meet each other when going to the place of meeting or coming back. Once I went to Gorgan Street to visit him. I waited but he did not come and I returned to Zarrin-Na’l. I was passing an alley that I heard somebody saying: “Salam Aleykom! [Hello!]” It was him; the late Andarzgou. I found out that he had been checking me from the place of appointment till there.
The late Andarzgou tactic was like this that he would choose the places for meeting where he would now some shopkeepers or stand holders. The people who knew him had the information of individuals related to him and would check and monitor them. Then they would report the matter to Andarzgou. For example, they would say: “That person came and waited for 20 minutes and then went away.” Using this tactic, Andarzgou had confused SAVAK. He would never be entrapped. Sometimes a stand holder or a beggar was an agent of him. Nobody would think of the tricks he would make.
In the last visits I found out that shopkeepers were looking at me in a different way. Since I felt that I was quite normal it was questionable to me that why they were looking at me like that. Sometimes he would not come for appointments and through these people he would be informed of my health.
The late Andarzgou would present a new figure each time I met him. He would use different clothes; from skull-cap to hat and from suit and trousers to topcoat and from clergy suit to Arabic clothes. Sometimes he was bearded and sometimes beardless, sometimes wearing glasses and sometimes not and….
[1] Mr. Rafiqdoust tells the story like this in his memoirs: “…I had contacts with MKO through 4 canals; one of them was the Andarzgou [and the other one] was Mr. Ahmad. [He] had been injured and imprisoned for a long time before the revolution. He has tired body now, but thank god that he is still alive. [The third canal] was the late Rajaei and [the fourth] was the late Majid Sharif Waqefi.” (Oral History Unit Archive- The Bureau for The Islamic Revolution Literature)
“Mohsen Rafiqdoust was born in 1940 in a religious financially moderate family in south of Tehran. After elementary school, he entered Behbahani High School but was expelled in the second grade because of political activities. So he joined his father in his business and continued his studies at nights. In 1957 he got his diploma in math. From his childhood he got acquainted with the late Navvab Safavi and the late Abdulhussein Vahedi from “Islam Devotees” and would take part in their speech sessions.
When Liberty Movement was established in 1960, he joined them and later cooperated with his other comrades in Coalition Councils including its military branch with the late Andarzgou. He was arrested in 1976 because this cooperation and freed in 1978. He had an effective role in Ashura and Tasu’a rallies in Tehran in 1978. Then he accepted the security and facilities affairs in the Committee of Welcoming Imam [Khomeini] in 1979. He was also the driver of the Blazer which carried Imam from the Mehrabad Airport. After the Islamic Revolution he became the administrator of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Facilities Office, Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Minister, Head of Cooperation Fund of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and President of The Handicapped and Oppressed Fund.
[2] Ali Akbar Heydari, known as Ali Sabziforoush, was born in a religious farmer family in 1937 in Doulab Quarters in south of Tehran. He passed his elementary school in traditional religious schools. He began his political and religious activities from Nayebossaltaneh Mosque and taking part in speech sessions of Haj Sheikh Mahdi Mo’ezzodoleh. He expanded his activity by presence in Mahdiye Mosque in Tehran and would take part in the late Ayatollah Saeedi speeches. He was a Coalition Councils member and was effective in shaping the rallies of Ashura and the June 5th Rise in 1963. He did a great attempt in gathering signatures to prove the Marja’iyyat, "being source of emulation", of Imam Khomeini. After the assassination of Hassan Ali Mansour he was arrested along with his other comrades and imprisoned till 1967. After the arrest of Mr. Rafiqdoust, he was also arrested and imprisoned till the spring of 1978.
[3] Korsi: A square table covered with a blanket with a brazier under it to heat the legs and body.
[4] Mr. Ali Heydari says in his memories: “… Mr. Ahmad was among our confirmed friends. I had told the late Andarzgou that I wanted to introduce Mr. Ahmad Ahmad to him. He told me: “Let it be for few days.” Andarzgou went to Qum for few days. When he was back, I asked him again to let Ahmad visit him. He said: “No, tell him to come tomorrow. I call you tomorrow and tell you the time and place.” Then I took Ahmad to my father’s house in the end of Ghiyasi Street. Accidentally there was a funeral ceremony of one of relative there. I took him to Mr. Andarzgou in the basement. Andarzgou was sitting under a Korsi. I introduced them to each other…” (Oral History Unit Archive- The Bureau for The Islamic Revolution Literature)
[5] Seyyed Ali Andarzgou was in November 1937 in a religious family in southern Tehran. After elementary school he had to interrupt his studying at school and work in Bazaar. Since he was a not person to stop learning went to the local mosque and began learning seminary courses there. During this period he joined the military branch of Coalition Councils and after the assassination of Hassan Ali Mansour, he went to Qum and then Najaf to continue his studies. After returning from Iraq he continued his seminary studies in Qum and became student of Ayatollah Meshkini and Makarem Shirazi. Since he was wanted by SAVAK, he introduced himself in Qum as Sheikh Abbas Tehrani. However, he was identified because of his activities. So, he moved to Chizar, a village in Shemiran in north of Tehran and continued his studies with Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Asghar Hashemi. After some time, he moved to Mashhad and settled there and this way could have some trips to Afghanistan.
Andarzgou married at the age of 27. However, after a short time, he separated from his wife when he was fleeing after Mansour’s assassination. Later he married with Mr. Ezzat-ullah Seyl Sepour’s daughter. They became the parents of four sons.
Through the late Mohammad Mofidi, the late Andarzgou made contacts with Hezbollah Organization and through the late Ahmad Rezaei he could get in touch with MKO. When MKO announced its Marxist positions after the ideology change in 1975 and Madjid Sharif and Morteza Samadiyyeh Labbaf were killed, Andarzgou was enlisted as one the figures whom MKO wanted to assassinate because of insisting on him Islamic believes.
Finally Andarzgou was identifies and was killed by SAVAK on August 24th 1978 in Iran Street. His other pseudonyms are: 1- Sheikh Abbas Tehrani 2- Dr. Seyyed Hussein Husseini 3- Abul-Qassem Vase’i 4- Abd-ul-Karim Sepehrnia 5- Abul-Hassan Nahvi 6- Mohammad Hussein Joharchi 7- Javadi
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