afghanistanMubarak, the Blessed Hair. He then questioned the authenticity of the
relic, said to be a hair from the beard of Muhammad, and ridiculed relic
cults in general. Nur al-Mashayekh riposted by accusing Ghulam Hasan
of blasphemy and demanded he be stoned to death.
By the winter of 1952 Shah Mahmud had had enough of this experi-
ment in liberalization and banned all private publications, shut down the
unofficial Students’ Union and jailed prominent dissidents and journalists.
Those arrested included Muhammad Ghulam Hasan Safi, Babrak Karmal,
a Tajik from Kamari whose family originated in Kashmir, and Mir Akbar
Khyber, a Logari Ghilzai. Babrak and Mir Akbar later became leaders of
Afghanistan’s Parcham Communist Party. The government then called
new elections and this time made sure that not a single anti-government
radical returned as a Member of Parliament.
Da’ud took advantage of this brief period of liberalization to attempt to
depose his uncle. On the eve of Nauroz 1951, the internal security services
informed Shah Mahmud they had uncovered a coup designed to take
place during the New Year celebrations. 29 The ringleader was identified as
Sayyid Muhammad Isma‘il Balkhi, son of Muhammad Ibrahim Beg, known
as Gau Sowar, the Hazara leader who had led the 1946 uprising. Balkhi
had studied in the great Shi‘a centre of Najaf in Iraq, and on his return to
Afghanistan established madrasas in Chindawal and the Hazara mahala
of Jamal Mina in Kabul. He also founded the underground political party
Mujtami-yi Islami (The Islamic Assemblage). Balkhi’s coup was nipped
in the bud and the conspirators were imprisoned, but according to Khalil
Khalili it was Da’ud who was the real mastermind behind the plot. In the
days before Nauroz a number of prominent cabinet ministers, including
Khalili, were approached by intermediaries to sound them out, while Da’ud
had a secret meeting with Balkhi. It appears that Da’ud either incited the
putsch or attempted to manipulate it for his own ends. If this were the case,
this would account for why shortly after the plotters were arrested both
Da’ud and Na‘im were dismissed from the government.
The resignation of Shah MahmudIn March 1953 Da’ud travelled to Moscow to attend Stalin’s funeral, where he
doubtless discussed the situation in Afghanistan with the Politburo. Soviet
officials appear to have encouraged Da’ud to depose Shah Mahmud for
Communist sympathizers had been imprisoned for taking part in protests
and publishing anti-government articles. On his return to Kabul, Da’ud
confronted his uncle and demanded he resign but Shah Mahmud refused