Pune: The National Movement of Iranian Resistance (NAMIR), India Branch, on Sunday, marked the 26th death anniversary of Dr Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister of Iran under the monarchy before it was overthrown in the February 1979 revolution.

Bakhtiar had attempted to forestall Ayatollah Khomeini’s religious movement by introducing democratic reforms that had long been demanded by the moderate opposition to the Shah’s dictatorial regime. Ultimately, he failed to gain mass support and he was forced out of power. 

After months in hiding, he fled the country and became an active enemy of the newly formed Islamic Republic, which had established itself after the fall of the monarchy. In August 1991, Bakhtiar was killed in France, where he was living in exile.

Bhakhtiar had founded NAMIR in the early 1980s, which maintained that during the 38 years of the Islamic regime in Iran, poverty, unemployment, inflation, foreign debts and hardships have increased drastically and Iran has lost its position in the global world.