The Paykar group is a secular Marxist group known as the "Paykar Organization". When elements of the Mojahedin organization (previously known for its religious and revolutionary ideals) published an anti-Islamic Manifesto in 1975, the Mojahedin split into two groups a Marxist-Leninist branch, and a Muslim Mojahedin which still adhered to Islamic tenets (Ervand Abrahamian, 1989, p.145). The Marxist group initially called themselves the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran, and in 1978, took the name "The Marxist-Leninist Branch of the People's Mojahedin organization of Iran" (Bakhsh-e Marksisti-Leninisti-ye Sazeman-e Mojahedin-e Khalq-e) (Ibid, p.146). When this latter group merged with Maoist elements during the Iranian revolution in 1978, it became known as "The Combat Organization on the Road for the Emancipation of the Working Class" (Sazeman-e Paykar dar Rah-e Azadi-ye Tabaqeh-ye Kargar) or the Paykar organization.

When Hassan Bani-Sadr, the President of Iran from 4 February 1980 to 21 June 1981, and Massoud Rajavi, the leader of the (Muslim) Mojahedin, fled to exile in Paris in 1981 and formed a National Council of Resistance, the Paykar organization was not among the leftist groups which joined the National Council (Ibid, pp. 243, 247). After Bani-Sadr and Rajavi were out of the country, the various Mojahedin guerrilla groups stepped up armed attacks. The government responded by executing some 300 members of the Paykar, Mojahedin, Fedai, Komala and KDP (Dilip Hiro, p. 192). By 1982, the political and religious differences between the followers of Khomeini (e.g. Islamic Revolutionary Party), and the secular and Marxist-leftist parties (e.g. Paykar) was quite wide. The Paykar Organization was confined to conducting guerrilla attacks in the north of the country (Ibid, p. 209).

According to World Encyclopedia of Political Parties and Systems, the Paykar recruited in factories, oilfields, and among the urban proletariat (George Delury, 1987, p. 521). This source states that the Paykar (Battle Organization) was capable of attracting an estimated 10,000 supporters in university areas in 1980 (while the parent Mojahedin organization attracted as many as 150,000 to a rally in Tehran in 1981). However, since the Mojahedin were forced underground and engaged in violence, the numbers of supporters have declined. The number of active Mojahedin in Iran is estimated (by this source) at no more than 1000, and most members "are students living in the U.S. or Europe" (Ibid, p. 522). Recent information on the fate of the Paykar organization is not currently available to the IRBDC.

Ervand Abrahamian, Radical Islam: The Iranian Moiahedin, London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 1989.

Dilip Hiro, Iran Under the Ayatollahs, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987.

Bibliography

Ervand Abrahamian, Radical Islam: The Iranian Mojahedin (London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 1989), pp. 145, 146, 243, 247.

Dilip Hiro, Iran Under the Ayatollahs, pp. 192, 209.

George Delury, World Encyclopedia of Political Parties and Systems (New York: Facts on File Publications, 1987), pp. 521, 522.