Imam Khomeini used to stay in the holy city of Najaf until the 7th of Muharram during his stay of about 15 years in Iraq. There, he used to visit Imam Ali (‘a) holy shrine twice a day and recited Ziarat Ashura supplications.
From 7th of Muharram onwards, Imam used to move to Karbala and stayed there until 13th of the month. Imam also in Karbala used to regularly visit the shrine twice a day before despite the excessive crowds.
He would never miss the pilgrimage due to too much number of pilgrims or his physical condition. It happened sometimes that Imam Khomeini was stuck in the crowd that his companions felt fear for his life so that he would not be harmed.
Neither too much crowds at the holy shrine nor did the physical condition prevent him from performing the pilgrimage of Imam Hossein (‘a) on Ashura, the grandson of the holy prophet of Islam.
(A memoirs by Ayatollah Khatam Yazdi, extracted from a book about Imam’s life and conduct, Vol. 3)