An enormous difficulty was experienced in the initial days in Qom from the point of view of safety and security which was that the Imam declined to have an armed security guard for his personal protection. He always said: “I do not want an armed security guard” even though in the nights he would often visit the homes of erudite scholars and families of martyrs—and the possibility of danger and threat was very real. As soon as the residents of Qom would come to know that the Imam was to pass along a certain route or street, they would all come out of their homes and gather round the car carrying him. They would even climb on the roof and bonnet of the car so that neither the driver nor the Imam could see where they were going. All the same the Imam would insist: “Nobody should follow me; the people shall protect me.”
Name of the narrator: Hujjat al-Islam wal Muslimeen Ansari Kermani, Payam-e-Enqelab journal, no. 52
Title of the Book: Impressions and Memoirs about Imam Khomeini's Practical Behaviour, vol. 1, chapter two, page 149