Last king of Afghanistan dies

The former king of Afghanistan, Mohammad Zahir Shah
Mohammad Zahir Shah died in his bed after a long illness. Photograph: Antonio Denti/Reuters
Mohammad Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan who returned from three decades of exile to support his war-battered country's moves towards democracy, died today, aged 92.

"With paramount grief, I would like to inform my countrymen that ... Mohammad Zahir Shah has bid farewell to this mortal world," Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, said.

The Reuters news agency reported that state television interrupted its normal broadcast for a woman, dressed in black, to announce the death. Prayers and recitals from the Qur'an followed.

The former king, who had left Afghanistan several times for medical treatment, died in his bed after months of illness.

Describing him as the founder of Afghanistan's democracy and a symbol of national unity, Mr Karzai announced three days of national mourning for the former king and ordered flags to be flown at half-mast.

His body will lie in state at a mosque in Kabul before being buried in a mausoleum next to his father on a hill overlooking the city.

Weak, if well meaning, during his 40-year reign, Zahir Shah was a symbol of peace and unity in a country still struggling to emerge from the turmoil that began with his 1973 ouster in a palace coup.

When the fall of the Taliban in 2001 offered fresh hope for national reconciliation, many demanded Zahir Shah's return - not only from exile but to retake the throne. He returned from Italy in April 2002 but stood aside in favour of a young anti-Taliban tribesman, Mr Karzai.

A new constitution passed in January 2004 consigned the monarchy to history, with Zahir Shah named the ceremonial "Father of the Nation", a position that will disappear with his death.

Born in 1914, Zahir Shah was proclaimed monarch at the age of 19 within hours of witnessing the assassination of his father, King Mohammad Nadir Shah.

He was not a dynamic ruler, with uncles and cousins holding the real power for most of his reign during which Afghanistan remained poor and forgotten.

But his neutral foreign policy and limited liberalisation of a conservative society managed to keep the peace - a golden age in the eyes of many Afghans pained by the extremism and slaughter that followed.

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