By Sayed Salahuddin

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 on Monday, aged 92.

“With paramount grief, I would like to inform my countrymen that … Mohammad Zahir Shah has bid farewell to this mortal world,” President Hamid Karzai told reporters at the presidential palace.

State television 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.

The former king died in his bed after months of illness.

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

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.”

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