In 1920 Mohammad Taqi returned to Iran and joined the Gendarmerie. In June 1920 he was promoted to the rank of colonel and in September 1920 he became commander of Gendarmerie of Khorasan. On 3 April 1921 in a military coup with his small force of only 200 gendarmes, he had Ahmad Qavam, the Governor-general of Khorasan, arrested and sent him to capital where he was imprisoned. He then became head of the provincial Autonomous Government of Khorasan. In June, Ahmad Qavam was released from prison and became Premier of homeland.
He was determined to take revenge & suppress Pessian. He did so by gaining the approval of Reza Khan & dispatching the Cossack forces to Khorasan. Having previously been the governor of that province, Qavam had developed a strong relationship with the local chieftains and dispatched them to confront Pessian also. Sardar Mo’azez Khan Bojnurdi succeeded in gaining the cooperation of the Shirvan chieftains in mobilizing the kurds in Quchan. To combat this, Pessian gathered his scant forces to face the insurgency in Ja’farabad (near Quchan).
