No one can open the file on Juhaiman bin Saif Al-Otaibi and his group without mentioning the late Crown Prince Naif who was the interior minister at the time. When the group occupied the Grand Mosque, Prince Naif faced the challenge of liberating it.

He insisted on overseeing the operation by himself without any outside help.When Juhaiman and Muhammad Al-Qahtani, who would later become his brother-in-law, joined hands, their collective ideologies began spreading poisonous ideas in small mosques in Madinah. In 1965, Juhaiman established a group called Al-Jamma’a Al-Salafiyya Al-Muhtasiba, which was an extension of the Ikhwan ideology. Soon Juhaiman took control of the group and diverted its tasks to political activities.

As the group expanded, he recruited youth from all over the Kingdom. Prince Naif interfered at the time and called for the group’s activities to be supervised. As a result, Juhaiman isolated the group and himself from society.

The Al-Watan newspaper carried the details of the operation in a report on Monday.In late 1978, Al-Qahtani told Juhaiman that he had had a dream in which he was the Mahdi, or redeemer of Islam, and said he wanted to liberate the Arabian peninsula and the entire world from wrongdoing, injustice and tyranny. On Nov. 20, 1979, 270 people from Juhaiman’s group entered the Grand Mosque under the pretext of attending the Fajr prayer. They were carrying several caskets with them and mosque guards were told they contained bodies. In reality, the caskets contained dozens of weapons that the group would later use to take over the mosque.

During the Fajr prayer, the group chained all of the mosque’s doors and placed two guards at each door. Several other militants stormed the microphone room and took control of the mosque’s loudspeakers. Sheikh Muhammad Al-Subayel, who was leading the prayer, said as soon as the prayer concluded, the group announced the appearance of the Mahdi.

They said he had escaped from his enemies and was taking refuge inside the Grand Mosque. Juhaiman then introduced Al-Qahtani as “the awaited Mahdi and the redeemer of Islam.”Juhaiman and his group then pledged allegiance to Al-Qahtani who asked the people to also do so while members of the group began firing gunshots in the air. The mosque’s guards, who are not armed, tried to resist them but were shot and killed.

A group of worshippers managed to escape from the Grand Mosque but others who tried to reason with the group and told them they were wrong were also shot dead.Prince Naif immediately ordered the Grand Mosque to be surrounded and told officers not to engage in any contact with the group until the authorities had a clearer picture. Security forces began moving inside the mosque complex and some of them managed to position themselves inside and waited for orders to attack. At the same time, Juhaiman’s group was trying to force all worshippers inside to pledge allegiance to the awaited Mahdi.The then King Khaled met with Muslim scholars and briefed them on the situation.

Scholars said a surrender should be negotiated with the group and if they refused, then they should be forcibly evacted even if it meant killing them.Meanwhile, Prince Naif had arrived in Makkah to personally supervise the operation and plans to liberate the Grand Mosque.People and residents around the Grand Mosque complex were asked to clear the area due the guns being fired by Juhaiman’s group from the mosque’s minarets. Saudi security forces managed to identify their positions and the type of weapons they were using.

Groups from the National Guard were brought in along with the armed forces in preparation to storm the besieged mosque. King Khaled’s directives at that time were to give the group time to surrender and to ensure the safety of the innocent people stuck inside the mosque. Saudi forces used microphones to ask the group to surrender and release the hostages but they refused.There were scattered clashes with the group and Saudi snipers were brought in to take out the snipers inside the mosque.

The Saudi troops already positioned inside also began engaging Juhaiman’s group and forced them to release the hostages. Saudi troops forced the group to withdraw to the tunnels in the lower level beneath the mosque and they then took control of the roads leading to the tunnels.Juhaiman and his group barricaded themselves in several rooms underneath the Grand Mosque.

After five days of being surrounded, dozens of members in the group surrendered to the authorities. After the news of Al-Qahtani’s death began to spread, many other members laid down their arms and surrendered.

On Dec. 5, 1979, the Saudi Army and the National Guard laid out a plan to put an end to the siege. They started a final push and managed to isolate the group far away from the Ka’aba. Saudi forces then cut electricity and water to them. Some immediately surrendered while other continued to fight.

The news about French, Jordanian and Egyptian forces participating in the operation to liberate the Grand Mosque was not true. At the time, Saudi Arabia received many offers of help but they were all declined. King Khaled addressed the country’s security forces and the National Guard and thanked them for liberating the Grand Mosque.On Jan. 10, 1980, 63 people who carried out the attacks were executed in several different cities while Juhaiman was executed in Makkah. The nationalities of the people that were executed are as follows: 34 Saudis, 9 Egyptians, 3 Kuwaitis, 6 Yemenis, 1 Sudanese and 1 Iraqi. Prince Naif said at a press conference after the incident that 19 people went to jail and 23 women and children were sent to juvenile centers.Prince Naif also announced that 12 Saudi officers and 115 soldiers died during the operation. In addition, 402 officers and 49 soldiers were injured.

Prince Naif said 75 members of Juhaiman’s group were killed during the siege. Fifteen bodies belonging to the group were later found in the tunnels underneath the mosque.