Iran: How a Marxist guerilla band sparked a struggle in Siahkal
An unsuccessful attack in a small Iranian mountain town under the Shah continues to resonate half a century later
Fifty years later, the Siahkal incident remains a symbol of uncompromising resistance against dictatorship in Iran (MEE/Illustration by Mohamad Elaasar) By Published date: 8 February 2021 12:40 UTC | Last update: 1 month 2 weeks ago
As the sun set behind the high peaks of the Alborz mountain range, nine young Marxist guerrilla fighters, armed with light machine guns and grenades, descended from the snow-blanketed heights of northern Iran.
On 8 February 1971, the young men had one goal: to free one of their companions in arms, Hadi Bandehkhoda Langroudi, an engineering student who had been expelled from university for his activism against the Shah, arrested earlier that day and held in a gendarmerie post in the small town of Siahkal.