On 12 March 2000, Saeed Hajjarian was shot in the head by an assailant but narrowly escaped death, ending up paralyzed for life. He is "believed to have played a key role in bringing about… damaging disclosures" against the sponsors of the chain killings, not only as editor of "Sobh Emrouz" daily, but as a former deputy minister of intelligence turned reformist. Consequently, "some believe that remnants" of the chain murder "intelligence killer group may have been" behind his attempted assassination.