On November 20, 1979 the first day of the Islamic year 1400 the Grand Mosque in Mecca was seized by a well-organized group of 1,300 to 1,500 men under al-Otaibi's leadership.
The Grand Mosque Seizure lasted three weeks before Saudi Special Forces attempted to break into the Mosque. They employed many methods to break down the doors of the Mosque, including tanks, but failed in the end due to the doors' strength. With the help of the Pakistan Army SSG commandos, the Minister of Defence and Prince Sultan, finally captured the mosque. Upon entering the mosque, it was full of dead bodies and waste. The fleeing rebels tried to escape through water tunnels around the mosque, which however were then flushed with water to bring the rebels out.
When Juhayman was arrested he refused to speak to anyone until a group of scholars from Medina who were his teachers, led by Shaykh Muhammad al-Ameen ash-Shanqeetee visited him in prison and embraced him and wept severely and asked him for his justification. Juhayman replied that he was motivated by the turmoil of that time and that he hoped that if they called on Allah and asked for forgiveness so that perhaps Allah would forgive them.
Juhayman and 67 members of his group were subsequently beheaded by the Saudi Government.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juhayman_al-Otaibi#Takeover_of_the_Grand_Mosque
The Grand Mosque Seizure lasted three weeks before Saudi Special Forces attempted to break into the Mosque. They employed many methods to break down the doors of the Mosque, including tanks, but failed in the end due to the doors' strength. With the help of the Pakistan Army SSG commandos, the Minister of Defence and Prince Sultan, finally captured the mosque. Upon entering the mosque, it was full of dead bodies and waste. The fleeing rebels tried to escape through water tunnels around the mosque, which however were then flushed with water to bring the rebels out.
When Juhayman was arrested he refused to speak to anyone until a group of scholars from Medina who were his teachers, led by Shaykh Muhammad al-Ameen ash-Shanqeetee visited him in prison and embraced him and wept severely and asked him for his justification. Juhayman replied that he was motivated by the turmoil of that time and that he hoped that if they called on Allah and asked for forgiveness so that perhaps Allah would forgive them.
Juhayman and 67 members of his group were subsequently beheaded by the Saudi Government.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juhayman_al-Otaibi#Takeover_of_the_Grand_Mosque
