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KABUL - Former King Mohammad Zahir Shah, whose 40-year reign until exile in 1973 coincided with one of the most peaceful periods in Afghanistan's recent history, died last night aged 92.
"He had been sick for a month," a presidential palace official said. State television interrupted its normal broadcast and a woman dressed in 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.
He was a distant relative of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
- REUTERS
