In March 1968 he was allowed to enter to Spanish Sahara (he had tried to enter on December 1967, but he was detained and expelled), because of the closing of the newspaper by Moroccan authorities in late 1967, and settled in the city of Smara as a Quranic teacher. It was there he started to organize the anti-colonial movement known as the "movement of liberation" (In Arabic: Harakat Tahrir) calling for end of Spanish occupation of the Sahara. Bassiri stressed non-violence (influenced by the peaceful struggle of Gandhi in the colonized India) and wanted to bring about change through democratic action, although the ruthless colonial rule imposed by Francisco Franco's Spain forced the Harakat Tahrir to remain clandestine. Bassiri didn't want a precipitated independence, but to negotiate with the Spanish authorities