Former king Mohammad Zahir Shah, whose 40-year reign until his exile in 1973 coincided with one of the most peaceful periods in Afghanistan's recent history, died yesterday at his Kabul home, aged 92.
"We announce three days of national mourning over the death of the father of the nation, and the Afghan flag will be at half mast for three days," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told reporters at a press conference.
"Prayer ceremonies will be held across the country, in the capital, in the provinces, by Afghan refugees overseas and in Afghan embassies," he said.
PHOTO: AP
State TV interrupted its normal broadcast and a woman dressed black with a black headscarf announced Zahir Shah had died. Prayers and recitals from the Koran followed.
Zahir Shah ruled Afghanistan from 1933 until he was deposed by his cousin in 1973. He lived in exile in Italy before returning home as an ordinary citizen in 2002, but was accorded the honorary title "father of the nation."
"When I saw the mountains of my country, my people, my friends -- what is better that this," he said shortly after his return. "I wish just to be able to do things for my country and serve it."
Zahir Shah came from a long line of ethnic Pashtun rulers and is a distant relative of Karzai.
Born in Kabul on Oct. 15, 1914, Zahir Shah received part of his education in France and returned to Kabul for military training. He ascended the throne in 1933 after his father was assassinated by a deranged student.
For two decades, the bookish king remained in the shadows, allowing three uncles to run the government. But he gradually gained in confidence and took full control in 1953, overseeing a cautious modernization.
He supported an end to purdah -- the wearing of the veil -- for women, used foreign cash to develop the country's medieval infrastructure and managed to keep a balance between rival Soviet and Western interests.
In 1973, while holidaying in Italy, Zahir Shah was ousted in a bloodless coup orchestrated by his cousin and brother-in-law, Prince Daoud, ending two centuries of rule by the Durrani dynasty.
Daoud was later killed in a coup and after Soviet troops entered the country in 1979 to prop up the communist government, Afghanistan has barely seen peace.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS