Body Of Afghan President Identified After 30 Years

The finding was made by a government appointed commission after six months of excavation at a military base near Kabul.

Afghan authorities have identified the body of ex-President Mohammad Daud Khan who was slain in a communist-backed coup three decades ago along with some members of his family, an official said on Thursday.

The finding was made by a government appointed commission after six months of excavation at a military base on the eastern outskirts of Kabul, said Ahmad Farid Raaid, of the public health ministry.

Daud Khan, Afghanistan's first president, was shot dead in the presidential palace in a military coup in April 1978.

Many Afghans see it as one of their country's darkest days, because it was followed by a decade of Soviet occupation, civil war, and the rise of the Taliban, who were toppled by U.S.-led troops in 2001.

Some two million people are believed to have been killed since the 1978 coup and more than six million have fled the country.

Daud Khan came to power in a coup himself when he overthrew his cousin Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, in 1973.

He tried to counter the influence of Islamists and established a republic, introducing reforms and eventually favoured relations with the West over the Soviet Union.

The government and Daud Khan's family members will decide over a place for reburying the former president and those found in the mass two graves, Raaid said.